Ryanair plans cheap trans-Atlantic flights
Internatonal Herald Tribune, 12-Nov-08
Budget airline Ryanair plans to offer trans-Atlantic flights as cheap as 10 euros ($12.70) before taxes to several U.S. cities from Britain and Ireland, a company official said, according to a newspaper report Sunday.
The Irish airline wants to offer services from London's Stansted and Dublin airports to New York, Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary was quoted as saying in an interview with Britain's News of the World tabloid.
Ryanair Holdings PLC spokeswoman Pauline McAlester said she could not confirm the plan before an official announcement Monday when the company's half yearly results — expected to show a fall in profits as a result of slowing consumer demand — are announced.
"Economy class will be very cheap — around 10 euros. But our business class will be very expensive. There's always 10-15 percent who'll pay whatever it costs for a wide seat," O'Leary was quoted as saying.
Last month, the airline closed a base in Valencia, ending 70 weekly flights to the city in southern Spain.
But O'Leary hopes Ryanair could snap up aircraft from struggling rivals to create a new trans-Atlantic service, the newspaper said.
"We'll just have to keep flying more aircraft, opening up more routes and offering people more cheap flights," he was quoted as saying.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Interview with Room to Read's John Wood
Room to Read's John Wood: Bringing the Power of Education to Children around the World
Knowledge Wharton, 23-Dec-08
After a trek in the Himalayas brought him face-to-face with extreme poverty and illiteracy, John Wood left his position as a director of business development at Microsoft to found Room to Read, an award-winning international education organization. Under his leadership, more than 1.7 million children in the developing world now have access to enhanced educational opportunities. Room to Read to date has opened 725 schools and 7,000 bilingual libraries, and funded more than 7,000 scholarships for girls. Wood talked with Knowledge@Wharton about the launch of Room to Read, the book he wrote called Leaving Microsoft to Change the World and his personal definition of success ...
Knowledge Wharton, 23-Dec-08
After a trek in the Himalayas brought him face-to-face with extreme poverty and illiteracy, John Wood left his position as a director of business development at Microsoft to found Room to Read, an award-winning international education organization. Under his leadership, more than 1.7 million children in the developing world now have access to enhanced educational opportunities. Room to Read to date has opened 725 schools and 7,000 bilingual libraries, and funded more than 7,000 scholarships for girls. Wood talked with Knowledge@Wharton about the launch of Room to Read, the book he wrote called Leaving Microsoft to Change the World and his personal definition of success ...Sunday, December 21, 2008
Doctors seek greener pastures abroad
Doctors seek greener pastures abroad
ekantipur, 6-Dec-08
By B BASNET
Dr. Nitesh Sharma (name changed) is burning midnight oil, studying voluminous books on medical sciences. Sharma, who got his MBBS degree from Calcutta Medical College last year, knows all too well that making it through the US Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) will not be easy. That is why, leaving medical practice aside, he is studying really hard.
Only those doctors, who make it through the USMLE, can practise medicine in the US.
Sharma is not alone in this endeavour. Holding part-time jobs, scores of doctors are studying really hard to go abroad and land better paying jobs.
Discouraged by the lack of opportunities in Nepal, more and more Nepali medical graduates are heading West, especially to the US. Thanks to ease of movement facilitated by globalisation and increasing demand for medical professionals even in developed countries, almost every Nepali medical graduate wants to go abroad to preferably the United States.
A preliminary research conducted by students at Maharajgunj-based Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that of the 44 Nepali students, who obtained MBBS degree from the institute this year, 34 are preparing for USMLE. "Some of them have submitted USMLE forms, while others are filling them," says Maniraj Neupane, an MBBS student.
According to Dr Subash Pyakurel, director at RISE, an institute that counsels people on medical career, more than 250 medical graduates from Nepal are going abroad annually, mainly to the US.
"This trend is on the rise," says Dr Pyakurel, who did well in USMLE and went to the US but had to return to Nepal three years ago due to medical problems.
Those medical graduates, who get good scores in USMLE, can gets admission in US medical colleges, where they can work and further their studies side by side. Besides the US, the UK, Australia, South Africa, and Gulf countries are other sought-after destinations for professions in white robes, he said.
Nepal's 11 medical colleges produce at least 700 doctors every year. Dr. Pyakurel estimates that another 500 Nepalis return home from after obtaining MBBS degree in China, Bangladesh, Phillipines, India, Pakistan and a number of other countries.
According to Nepal Medical Council (NMC), there are 8,076 registered doctors in Nepal. The number of doctors seeking the NMC licence is on the rise.
In the year 2007 alone, 870 graduates passed NMC test and got the licence. Only 488 had received medical licence in 2003. Many of the registered doctors have left for Europe and the US, according to sources at the Council.
"Every year, around 300 doctors manage to go to the US and other developed countries. This figure is dismal in comparison to number of Nepalis, who obtain MBBS degree from Nepali institutions every year."
"It is good that they are leaving for the USA and other countries as the country cannot absorb such a large number of doctors," he adds.
Health professionals say low pay, lack of research facilities and lack of opportunities for further education in Nepal are among the major factors that have prompted exodus of doctors to the west.
A student invests up to three million rupees to obtain a medical degree. "It is difficult to get back the investment through government salary," says Neupane.
Lack of basic medical equipment in district hospitals deters doctors. "Our district hospitals do not even have basic medical equipment. This discourages our doctors," accepts Dr. Sudha Sharma, acting secretary at the Ministry of Public Health.
On top of that, there are just a handful of seats in Nepali medical colleges for postgraduate studies. According to Dr Sharma, there are only 200 postgraduate seats in Nepal every year.
Dr. Sharma maintains that brain-drain will affect the country. According to her, those going abroad are cream of society. "All of us should work together to create a conducive environment for these doctors," she adds.
Dr Subaj Bhattarai, who is also preparing for USMLE, counters Sharma, "Unlike Nepal, the US provides lots of opportunities for doctors."
Like it or not, the young doctors will not stop chasing the American dream, it seems.
Says a doctor, "After all, America is America. Who doesn't want to go to America and settle there?"
ekantipur, 6-Dec-08
By B BASNET
Dr. Nitesh Sharma (name changed) is burning midnight oil, studying voluminous books on medical sciences. Sharma, who got his MBBS degree from Calcutta Medical College last year, knows all too well that making it through the US Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) will not be easy. That is why, leaving medical practice aside, he is studying really hard.
Only those doctors, who make it through the USMLE, can practise medicine in the US.
Sharma is not alone in this endeavour. Holding part-time jobs, scores of doctors are studying really hard to go abroad and land better paying jobs.
Discouraged by the lack of opportunities in Nepal, more and more Nepali medical graduates are heading West, especially to the US. Thanks to ease of movement facilitated by globalisation and increasing demand for medical professionals even in developed countries, almost every Nepali medical graduate wants to go abroad to preferably the United States.
A preliminary research conducted by students at Maharajgunj-based Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that of the 44 Nepali students, who obtained MBBS degree from the institute this year, 34 are preparing for USMLE. "Some of them have submitted USMLE forms, while others are filling them," says Maniraj Neupane, an MBBS student.
According to Dr Subash Pyakurel, director at RISE, an institute that counsels people on medical career, more than 250 medical graduates from Nepal are going abroad annually, mainly to the US.
"This trend is on the rise," says Dr Pyakurel, who did well in USMLE and went to the US but had to return to Nepal three years ago due to medical problems.
Those medical graduates, who get good scores in USMLE, can gets admission in US medical colleges, where they can work and further their studies side by side. Besides the US, the UK, Australia, South Africa, and Gulf countries are other sought-after destinations for professions in white robes, he said.
Nepal's 11 medical colleges produce at least 700 doctors every year. Dr. Pyakurel estimates that another 500 Nepalis return home from after obtaining MBBS degree in China, Bangladesh, Phillipines, India, Pakistan and a number of other countries.
According to Nepal Medical Council (NMC), there are 8,076 registered doctors in Nepal. The number of doctors seeking the NMC licence is on the rise.
In the year 2007 alone, 870 graduates passed NMC test and got the licence. Only 488 had received medical licence in 2003. Many of the registered doctors have left for Europe and the US, according to sources at the Council.
"Every year, around 300 doctors manage to go to the US and other developed countries. This figure is dismal in comparison to number of Nepalis, who obtain MBBS degree from Nepali institutions every year."
"It is good that they are leaving for the USA and other countries as the country cannot absorb such a large number of doctors," he adds.
Health professionals say low pay, lack of research facilities and lack of opportunities for further education in Nepal are among the major factors that have prompted exodus of doctors to the west.
A student invests up to three million rupees to obtain a medical degree. "It is difficult to get back the investment through government salary," says Neupane.
Lack of basic medical equipment in district hospitals deters doctors. "Our district hospitals do not even have basic medical equipment. This discourages our doctors," accepts Dr. Sudha Sharma, acting secretary at the Ministry of Public Health.
On top of that, there are just a handful of seats in Nepali medical colleges for postgraduate studies. According to Dr Sharma, there are only 200 postgraduate seats in Nepal every year.
Dr. Sharma maintains that brain-drain will affect the country. According to her, those going abroad are cream of society. "All of us should work together to create a conducive environment for these doctors," she adds.
Dr Subaj Bhattarai, who is also preparing for USMLE, counters Sharma, "Unlike Nepal, the US provides lots of opportunities for doctors."
Like it or not, the young doctors will not stop chasing the American dream, it seems.
Says a doctor, "After all, America is America. Who doesn't want to go to America and settle there?"
Monday, December 15, 2008
Is Nepal hijacking Indian Idol?
Is Nepal hijacking Indian Idol?
The Times of India, 5-Dec-08
When the third edition of Indian Idol 3 ended last year with Prashant Tamang beating his rival Amit Paul, the victory was due to the overwhelming votes that the Darjeeling boy received. Contributing generously to the votes were Tamang’s fans from Nepal who collected funds to send SMSes in his support, at times crossing over into India to vote for their favourite.
Though at least two of the judges – Alisha Chinoy and Javed Akhtar – felt Paul was the better singer, they both had to agree that the final decision was left to the voice of the people.
This year, as Indian Idol 4 is in full swing, is the public voice from Nepal out to swamp the Indian voice?
For the first time in the history of the contest, a mobile telephone company from Nepal has tied up with a publishing company to enable people from Nepal to vote directly from Nepal.
“When Prashant Tamang became the Indian Idol last year ... the people of Nepal had a big hand in Prashant’s win,” announced the local Himalayan Times daily Friday whose publishers International Media Network Nepal Private Ltd has started a scheme with Mero Mobile, Nepal’s sole private mobile phone services provider that was promoted three years ago by deposed king Gyanendra’s son-in-law, to enable direct SMS voting from Nepal.
“This year, Nepali fans of Indian Idol need not go to all this trouble to vote for the next Indian Idol,” the announcement said, referring to the border-crossings. Instead, those wanting to vote can use a Mero Mobile number from Nepal 12 hours daily from Friday to Saturday.
Last year, the enterprising pair had conducted a trial run, which consisted of asking people to predict the winner and win prizes. The direct vote offer comes following the fan frenzy created by Prashant. This year too, there is a contender of Nepali origin among the 14 finalists – Kapil Thapa, the army man from Dehra Dun, and the obvious strategy is to bank on the fan following he might arouse in Nepal.
The question is, can or should the Indian Idol be decided by Nepal? Would America accept the results if Nepalis managed to vote from Nepal or raised funds to abet a Nepali-origin contestant’s victory in American Idols? For that matter, would Nepalis accept it peaceably if Indians vote during the Nepali editions of the Idol in Nepal and push the winner they want?
SMS voting is a bad yardstick due to its sheer anonymity. Perhaps it is time the organisers of Indian Idol give it some thought and lay down guidelines.
The Times of India, 5-Dec-08
When the third edition of Indian Idol 3 ended last year with Prashant Tamang beating his rival Amit Paul, the victory was due to the overwhelming votes that the Darjeeling boy received. Contributing generously to the votes were Tamang’s fans from Nepal who collected funds to send SMSes in his support, at times crossing over into India to vote for their favourite.
Though at least two of the judges – Alisha Chinoy and Javed Akhtar – felt Paul was the better singer, they both had to agree that the final decision was left to the voice of the people.This year, as Indian Idol 4 is in full swing, is the public voice from Nepal out to swamp the Indian voice?
For the first time in the history of the contest, a mobile telephone company from Nepal has tied up with a publishing company to enable people from Nepal to vote directly from Nepal.
“When Prashant Tamang became the Indian Idol last year ... the people of Nepal had a big hand in Prashant’s win,” announced the local Himalayan Times daily Friday whose publishers International Media Network Nepal Private Ltd has started a scheme with Mero Mobile, Nepal’s sole private mobile phone services provider that was promoted three years ago by deposed king Gyanendra’s son-in-law, to enable direct SMS voting from Nepal.
“This year, Nepali fans of Indian Idol need not go to all this trouble to vote for the next Indian Idol,” the announcement said, referring to the border-crossings. Instead, those wanting to vote can use a Mero Mobile number from Nepal 12 hours daily from Friday to Saturday.
Last year, the enterprising pair had conducted a trial run, which consisted of asking people to predict the winner and win prizes. The direct vote offer comes following the fan frenzy created by Prashant. This year too, there is a contender of Nepali origin among the 14 finalists – Kapil Thapa, the army man from Dehra Dun, and the obvious strategy is to bank on the fan following he might arouse in Nepal.
The question is, can or should the Indian Idol be decided by Nepal? Would America accept the results if Nepalis managed to vote from Nepal or raised funds to abet a Nepali-origin contestant’s victory in American Idols? For that matter, would Nepalis accept it peaceably if Indians vote during the Nepali editions of the Idol in Nepal and push the winner they want?
SMS voting is a bad yardstick due to its sheer anonymity. Perhaps it is time the organisers of Indian Idol give it some thought and lay down guidelines.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Credit Suisse to Eliminate 5,300 Jobs After Losses
Credit Suisse to Eliminate 5,300 Jobs After Losses
Bloomberg, 4-Dec-08
By Elena Logutenkova and Christian Baumgaertel
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, will eliminate 5,300 jobs and scrap bonuses for its top executives after about 3 billion francs ($2.5 billion) of losses in the past two months.
The job cuts, which amount to 11 percent of the workforce, include about 3,800 at the securities unit, Zurich-based Credit Suisse said today. The 2 billion francs in savings will help the bank weather “continuing challenging market conditions,” Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan said in a statement.
Dougan, Chairman Walter Kielholz and Paul Calello, head of the investment bank, will forgo bonuses for 2008 after about 5.2 billion francs in net losses so far this year. Banks and insurers worldwide have reported about 200,000 job cuts and more than $970 billion in credit losses and markdowns since the global financial crisis began, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Credit Suisse rose 10 percent in Swiss trading.
“While the job cuts in investment banking are strategically right, it raises the question why they didn’t do this two quarters ago,” said Christoph Berger, a Frankfurt-based fund manager at Cominvest Asset Management, who helps manage about $100 billion, including Credit Suisse shares.
Credit Suisse rose 2.8 francs to 30.5 francs, leaving the shares down 55 percent this year. UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank and the lender with the highest losses in Europe from the credit crisis, has dropped 69 percent over the period.
No Need for Aid
Most of the job cuts will occur by the end of next June, and will include support positions in both asset management and private banking. The reductions will be concentrated in the U.S., where the investment-banking business is bigger, Dougan said. Credit Suisse said earlier this week it will eliminate 650 employees in London.
Today’s announcement brings total job cuts at Credit Suisse to 7,390, compared with 9,000 at UBS. UBS agreed in October to a $59.2 billion aid package from the Swiss government and the central bank to relieve it of risky assets, while Credit Suisse declined assistance.
Dougan, 49, who took over as CEO in May 2007 after heading the investment bank for three years, foresees no circumstances under which state aid would be required, he told reporters on a conference call today. The bank should still be able to achieve a 20 percent return on equity over the business cycle after the reorganization, he said.
‘Disappointing’
Standard & Poor’s said today it will review by the end of the year whether to lower Credit Suisse’s A+ long-term counterparty credit rating because of “larger-than-expected” losses following a “disappointing” third quarter.
The nation’s financial regulator said today it agreed with UBS and Credit Suisse on higher requirements on risk-weighted capital and the introduction of a leverage ratio to improve their ability to sustain losses.
Credit Suisse raised 10 billion francs from investors in Qatar, Israel and Saudi Arabia in October to raise its Tier 1 capital ratio, a gauge of a bank’s ability to absorb losses, to about 13.7 percent. The company said today it expects a ratio of about 13 percent at the end of this year.
Investment banks globally are grappling with widening losses after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September locked up credit markets and sent stocks tumbling. Top executives at competitors including UBS, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are also forgoing bonuses this year.
Nomura
Nomura Holdings Inc. is firing as many as 1,000 employees in London, the company said today, after worsening financial markets and costs related to buying parts of Lehman pushed the shares to a 26-year low.
Commerzbank AG plans to close Dresdner Kleinwort Ltd.’s regional U.K. mergers and acquisitions business as it integrates the securities unit of Dresdner Bank, spokesman Reiner Rossmann said. Frankfurt-based Commerzbank said in September it would cut about 1,300 jobs at Dresdner Kleinwort and its own investment bank after agreeing to buy Dresdner from Allianz SE.
Credit Suisse “missed the opportunity to be the global banking star,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts including Kian Abouhossein said in a note. Nevertheless, “we believe CEO Dougan has the ability to turn the investment bank around.”
Credit Suisse’s investment bank will scale back operations in complex products and exit some proprietary trading. The unit had a “significant” pretax loss in October and November as it cut risks in “challenging” markets, Credit Suisse said.
‘Challenging’ Markets
Christoffer Malmer, an analyst with Goldman, estimated on the conference call that Credit Suisse’s securities unit probably recorded a loss of about 5 billion francs for the two months. Dougan declined to confirm the number.
“Investment banking will remain a valuable contributor to the integrated bank with lower volatility and attractive risk returns,” Credit Suisse said in the statement.
The bank will take a charge of 900 million francs for the reorganization measures, mostly in the fourth quarter, which isn’t yet reflected in the net loss estimate.
Credit Suisse’s private banking operations were “solidly profitable” during October and November, Dougan said on the conference call. The bank as a whole had a “modest” profit in November.
The Swiss company will “judiciously invest in the growth of private banking globally,” Dougan said. The business hired 370 new client advisers by the end of November, more than the targeted 330 for 2008, and had “solid” new asset inflows so far, Credit Suisse said.
Bloomberg, 4-Dec-08
By Elena Logutenkova and Christian Baumgaertel
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s second-largest bank, will eliminate 5,300 jobs and scrap bonuses for its top executives after about 3 billion francs ($2.5 billion) of losses in the past two months.
The job cuts, which amount to 11 percent of the workforce, include about 3,800 at the securities unit, Zurich-based Credit Suisse said today. The 2 billion francs in savings will help the bank weather “continuing challenging market conditions,” Chief Executive Officer Brady Dougan said in a statement.Dougan, Chairman Walter Kielholz and Paul Calello, head of the investment bank, will forgo bonuses for 2008 after about 5.2 billion francs in net losses so far this year. Banks and insurers worldwide have reported about 200,000 job cuts and more than $970 billion in credit losses and markdowns since the global financial crisis began, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Credit Suisse rose 10 percent in Swiss trading.
“While the job cuts in investment banking are strategically right, it raises the question why they didn’t do this two quarters ago,” said Christoph Berger, a Frankfurt-based fund manager at Cominvest Asset Management, who helps manage about $100 billion, including Credit Suisse shares.
Credit Suisse rose 2.8 francs to 30.5 francs, leaving the shares down 55 percent this year. UBS AG, Switzerland’s largest bank and the lender with the highest losses in Europe from the credit crisis, has dropped 69 percent over the period.
No Need for Aid
Most of the job cuts will occur by the end of next June, and will include support positions in both asset management and private banking. The reductions will be concentrated in the U.S., where the investment-banking business is bigger, Dougan said. Credit Suisse said earlier this week it will eliminate 650 employees in London.
Today’s announcement brings total job cuts at Credit Suisse to 7,390, compared with 9,000 at UBS. UBS agreed in October to a $59.2 billion aid package from the Swiss government and the central bank to relieve it of risky assets, while Credit Suisse declined assistance.
Dougan, 49, who took over as CEO in May 2007 after heading the investment bank for three years, foresees no circumstances under which state aid would be required, he told reporters on a conference call today. The bank should still be able to achieve a 20 percent return on equity over the business cycle after the reorganization, he said.
‘Disappointing’
Standard & Poor’s said today it will review by the end of the year whether to lower Credit Suisse’s A+ long-term counterparty credit rating because of “larger-than-expected” losses following a “disappointing” third quarter.
The nation’s financial regulator said today it agreed with UBS and Credit Suisse on higher requirements on risk-weighted capital and the introduction of a leverage ratio to improve their ability to sustain losses.Credit Suisse raised 10 billion francs from investors in Qatar, Israel and Saudi Arabia in October to raise its Tier 1 capital ratio, a gauge of a bank’s ability to absorb losses, to about 13.7 percent. The company said today it expects a ratio of about 13 percent at the end of this year.
Investment banks globally are grappling with widening losses after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September locked up credit markets and sent stocks tumbling. Top executives at competitors including UBS, Deutsche Bank AG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are also forgoing bonuses this year.
Nomura
Nomura Holdings Inc. is firing as many as 1,000 employees in London, the company said today, after worsening financial markets and costs related to buying parts of Lehman pushed the shares to a 26-year low.
Commerzbank AG plans to close Dresdner Kleinwort Ltd.’s regional U.K. mergers and acquisitions business as it integrates the securities unit of Dresdner Bank, spokesman Reiner Rossmann said. Frankfurt-based Commerzbank said in September it would cut about 1,300 jobs at Dresdner Kleinwort and its own investment bank after agreeing to buy Dresdner from Allianz SE.
Credit Suisse “missed the opportunity to be the global banking star,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts including Kian Abouhossein said in a note. Nevertheless, “we believe CEO Dougan has the ability to turn the investment bank around.”
Credit Suisse’s investment bank will scale back operations in complex products and exit some proprietary trading. The unit had a “significant” pretax loss in October and November as it cut risks in “challenging” markets, Credit Suisse said.
‘Challenging’ Markets
Christoffer Malmer, an analyst with Goldman, estimated on the conference call that Credit Suisse’s securities unit probably recorded a loss of about 5 billion francs for the two months. Dougan declined to confirm the number.
“Investment banking will remain a valuable contributor to the integrated bank with lower volatility and attractive risk returns,” Credit Suisse said in the statement.
The bank will take a charge of 900 million francs for the reorganization measures, mostly in the fourth quarter, which isn’t yet reflected in the net loss estimate.
Credit Suisse’s private banking operations were “solidly profitable” during October and November, Dougan said on the conference call. The bank as a whole had a “modest” profit in November.
The Swiss company will “judiciously invest in the growth of private banking globally,” Dougan said. The business hired 370 new client advisers by the end of November, more than the targeted 330 for 2008, and had “solid” new asset inflows so far, Credit Suisse said.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Founder of EcoSystems Pvt Ltd
Moving Goods Through Nepal's Fragile Countryside
Stanford Business Magazine, May 2003
By David Sowerwine, MBA '72
We landed in Kathmandu in the December chill of 1991. I had been recruited as the business advisor in a U.S. Agency for International Development initiative to "kick-start" agribusiness activity in Nepal. That plan changed direction many times. Now 11 monsoons later, Nepal is still home to my wife, Haydi, and me, a place of ongoing adventure, challenge, learning, and satisfaction.
In the West contracts provide the framework necessary to encourage investment and resolve economic and social problems. In Nepal these rules are, at best, only at the discussion stage. Nepal is really a "low trust" country. Court decisions are ignored, and contracts are essentially unenforceable. A fellow foreign investor has had three Supreme Court decisions in his favor and has yet to collect from his former Nepali joint venture partners. The habits and mindset of a feudal society—authoritarian government, self-aggrandizement, and fatalism—block needed reforms. The resulting economic stagnation together with Nepal's exploding population—nearly a fivefold increase since the early 1950s—have brought deep and increasing poverty. Another consequence has been a confused Maoist revolutionary movement whose six years of violence may only now be transforming, we hope, into a reform movement.
Nonetheless, I have found many opportunities to get involved. In 1993 Nepali friends provided the necessary visas and asked us to stay to help address some of these issues. My corporate experience seemed relevant—Esso in the Far East, Dole/Castle & Cooke in Latin America, Raychem and small startups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Financially, we were lucky: The rent from two homes in Menlo Park was enough to cover living expenses and allowed us to hire good employees and start a Nepali business called EcoSystems Pvt. Ltd.
We made two false starts. At first we sought permission to build a network of video-based rural education centers, which stalled when we were informed by one of the bureaucracies that all tapes would have to be censored (conveniently by the very same bureaucrats, for a significant payment) and that our needed permit would not appear, since we had failed to do a proper Ganesh puja (god of wealth offering)—code for a bribe.
The second was an 18-month effort at the invitation of the government to organize a sanitary landfill for Kathmandu's solid waste that would be run as a private business. A Dutch environmental organization funded the engineering. This proposal also encountered unacceptable demands, such as employing all 800 employees of the bloated, moribund public solid waste corporation. The garbage is now being dumped along the holy Bagmati River.
The third attempt succeeded when we finally received government permission to design and build rural transport and energy products. Traditionally, the international banana companies elsewhere in the world have used so-called cableway transport systems to move banana stems from their plantations to the central packing plants. This standard technology, which we took as our starting point, resembles a rural monorail, except that the track is a tightly stretched wire instead of a rail, and the 4-ton trains of bananas are pulled by a person walking along a path beneath the wire.
We first adapted the cableway system to move people safely across rivers where the only alternatives are long walks up or downstream to a bridge, use of a 'tween that involves extremely dangerous hand-over-hand movement on a cable that normally is wound on convenient trees, or no crossing at all. We designed a safe carriage that rolls with pulleys on two wires (four for a big river). Schoolkids using our WireBridges can be seen at www.ecosystemsnepal.com. Gravity propels the passengers half way, and they pull on a climbing rope looped like a tenement clothesline for the rest of the trip. Our people-and-goods-movers now cross 21 rivers and, we estimate, have made more than 500,000 accident-free crossings. There is a long queue of villagers who are counting on us to find cofinancing so that they too can finally get their products to market, their kids to school, and their sick to a health post on our safe WireBridge. Stanford bridge sponsors are welcome.
In the meantime, we are refining another version of this system to become an inexpensive rural monorail. An international development agency whose mandate is to help with eco-friendly, pollution-free transportation is interested in financing a significant prototype within the Kathmandu Valley. If successful, it may evolve into a broad public transit network. There are tens of thousands of kilometers of reasonably level, beautiful river valleys in Nepal and a large swath of the Gangetic Plain where, for lack of an alternative, roads are being bulldozed or cut by hand. The fragile structure of the hills and poor construction techniques guarantee that these roads collapse, trigger landslides, consume arable land, are unusable in the monsoon, and generally are a dreadful environmental and economic choice. The WireRoad, as we call it, will be a kinder, gentler, cheaper solution.
Currently, around 70 percent of the Nepali people live without access to electricity. While Nepal has large potential for commercial hydropower, the cost of running wires is prohibitive for many areas. Reliable small, mini, and micro hydropower sites are becoming more common, but again will serve only a small part of the population. Solar power is expensive. Our energy-related project, still in an early stage, is to design and build hand- and pedal-driven generators ranging from 10 to 120 watts to provide reliable, inexpensive electricity for lighting, battery recharge, and other applications.
A Nepali partner is not required for a business license, so most of the foreign-owned firms are owned exclusively by their foreign entrepreneurs. Six years ago, facing the risk of losing a visa after having made our investments, some of us formed FIIN, the Forum of International Investors in Nepal (www.fiin.org) (renamed to Foundation for Foreign Investment in Nepal) to coach newcomers, resolve regulatory issues, and help HMG (His Majesty's Government) improve Nepal's investment climate. As a result of this effort, we now have secure visas and an excellent relationship with HMG and its key reformers.
Because of the six-year Maoist rebellion, the royal massacre of June 2001, and 9/11, tourism, a major source of income, has fallen off drastically. The recent announcement of a cease-fire has many hopeful that the necessary reforms by both HMG and the insurgents may radically improve the climate for change, restore the attraction of Nepal for tourists, and provide renewed hope for the suffering people and damaged economy. In spite of the past security threats, killings and bombings, which we know have had extremely negative reporting in the American press, we ourselves have never felt at personal risk, which is not to say that we have not been discouraged by what has been happening in this beautiful little country.
Additionally, building on the trust established through EcoSystems and FIIN, I have been coaching one of Nepal's district governments to shift the entire development process into a public-private partnership mode, where the public schools, health facilities, agricultural development, and other aspects of physical and social infrastructure would be contracted to private providers on performance-based agreements. In this scenario, the providers will be paid in accordance with their performance record. Several international donors will be needed to subsidize the public's obligations in this partnership during a transition period of 10 years while the local tax and income base is expanded to support the partnership's ongoing service costs.
Haydi and I are often asked by our California friends when we plan to move "home." We say that we hope to stay here as long as our work is rewarding, our health is good, and we can still stay connected with our families. When we think of the number of skilled people available to deal with regional social and environmental problems, we realize that the San Francisco Bay Area has so many and Nepal so few. There is something here for all of us who would try something new with our lives.
Stanford Business Magazine, May 2003
By David Sowerwine, MBA '72
We landed in Kathmandu in the December chill of 1991. I had been recruited as the business advisor in a U.S. Agency for International Development initiative to "kick-start" agribusiness activity in Nepal. That plan changed direction many times. Now 11 monsoons later, Nepal is still home to my wife, Haydi, and me, a place of ongoing adventure, challenge, learning, and satisfaction.
In the West contracts provide the framework necessary to encourage investment and resolve economic and social problems. In Nepal these rules are, at best, only at the discussion stage. Nepal is really a "low trust" country. Court decisions are ignored, and contracts are essentially unenforceable. A fellow foreign investor has had three Supreme Court decisions in his favor and has yet to collect from his former Nepali joint venture partners. The habits and mindset of a feudal society—authoritarian government, self-aggrandizement, and fatalism—block needed reforms. The resulting economic stagnation together with Nepal's exploding population—nearly a fivefold increase since the early 1950s—have brought deep and increasing poverty. Another consequence has been a confused Maoist revolutionary movement whose six years of violence may only now be transforming, we hope, into a reform movement.
Nonetheless, I have found many opportunities to get involved. In 1993 Nepali friends provided the necessary visas and asked us to stay to help address some of these issues. My corporate experience seemed relevant—Esso in the Far East, Dole/Castle & Cooke in Latin America, Raychem and small startups in the San Francisco Bay Area. Financially, we were lucky: The rent from two homes in Menlo Park was enough to cover living expenses and allowed us to hire good employees and start a Nepali business called EcoSystems Pvt. Ltd.We made two false starts. At first we sought permission to build a network of video-based rural education centers, which stalled when we were informed by one of the bureaucracies that all tapes would have to be censored (conveniently by the very same bureaucrats, for a significant payment) and that our needed permit would not appear, since we had failed to do a proper Ganesh puja (god of wealth offering)—code for a bribe.
The second was an 18-month effort at the invitation of the government to organize a sanitary landfill for Kathmandu's solid waste that would be run as a private business. A Dutch environmental organization funded the engineering. This proposal also encountered unacceptable demands, such as employing all 800 employees of the bloated, moribund public solid waste corporation. The garbage is now being dumped along the holy Bagmati River.
The third attempt succeeded when we finally received government permission to design and build rural transport and energy products. Traditionally, the international banana companies elsewhere in the world have used so-called cableway transport systems to move banana stems from their plantations to the central packing plants. This standard technology, which we took as our starting point, resembles a rural monorail, except that the track is a tightly stretched wire instead of a rail, and the 4-ton trains of bananas are pulled by a person walking along a path beneath the wire.
We first adapted the cableway system to move people safely across rivers where the only alternatives are long walks up or downstream to a bridge, use of a 'tween that involves extremely dangerous hand-over-hand movement on a cable that normally is wound on convenient trees, or no crossing at all. We designed a safe carriage that rolls with pulleys on two wires (four for a big river). Schoolkids using our WireBridges can be seen at www.ecosystemsnepal.com. Gravity propels the passengers half way, and they pull on a climbing rope looped like a tenement clothesline for the rest of the trip. Our people-and-goods-movers now cross 21 rivers and, we estimate, have made more than 500,000 accident-free crossings. There is a long queue of villagers who are counting on us to find cofinancing so that they too can finally get their products to market, their kids to school, and their sick to a health post on our safe WireBridge. Stanford bridge sponsors are welcome.
In the meantime, we are refining another version of this system to become an inexpensive rural monorail. An international development agency whose mandate is to help with eco-friendly, pollution-free transportation is interested in financing a significant prototype within the Kathmandu Valley. If successful, it may evolve into a broad public transit network. There are tens of thousands of kilometers of reasonably level, beautiful river valleys in Nepal and a large swath of the Gangetic Plain where, for lack of an alternative, roads are being bulldozed or cut by hand. The fragile structure of the hills and poor construction techniques guarantee that these roads collapse, trigger landslides, consume arable land, are unusable in the monsoon, and generally are a dreadful environmental and economic choice. The WireRoad, as we call it, will be a kinder, gentler, cheaper solution.
Currently, around 70 percent of the Nepali people live without access to electricity. While Nepal has large potential for commercial hydropower, the cost of running wires is prohibitive for many areas. Reliable small, mini, and micro hydropower sites are becoming more common, but again will serve only a small part of the population. Solar power is expensive. Our energy-related project, still in an early stage, is to design and build hand- and pedal-driven generators ranging from 10 to 120 watts to provide reliable, inexpensive electricity for lighting, battery recharge, and other applications.
A Nepali partner is not required for a business license, so most of the foreign-owned firms are owned exclusively by their foreign entrepreneurs. Six years ago, facing the risk of losing a visa after having made our investments, some of us formed FIIN, the Forum of International Investors in Nepal (www.fiin.org) (renamed to Foundation for Foreign Investment in Nepal) to coach newcomers, resolve regulatory issues, and help HMG (His Majesty's Government) improve Nepal's investment climate. As a result of this effort, we now have secure visas and an excellent relationship with HMG and its key reformers.
Because of the six-year Maoist rebellion, the royal massacre of June 2001, and 9/11, tourism, a major source of income, has fallen off drastically. The recent announcement of a cease-fire has many hopeful that the necessary reforms by both HMG and the insurgents may radically improve the climate for change, restore the attraction of Nepal for tourists, and provide renewed hope for the suffering people and damaged economy. In spite of the past security threats, killings and bombings, which we know have had extremely negative reporting in the American press, we ourselves have never felt at personal risk, which is not to say that we have not been discouraged by what has been happening in this beautiful little country.
Additionally, building on the trust established through EcoSystems and FIIN, I have been coaching one of Nepal's district governments to shift the entire development process into a public-private partnership mode, where the public schools, health facilities, agricultural development, and other aspects of physical and social infrastructure would be contracted to private providers on performance-based agreements. In this scenario, the providers will be paid in accordance with their performance record. Several international donors will be needed to subsidize the public's obligations in this partnership during a transition period of 10 years while the local tax and income base is expanded to support the partnership's ongoing service costs.
Haydi and I are often asked by our California friends when we plan to move "home." We say that we hope to stay here as long as our work is rewarding, our health is good, and we can still stay connected with our families. When we think of the number of skilled people available to deal with regional social and environmental problems, we realize that the San Francisco Bay Area has so many and Nepal so few. There is something here for all of us who would try something new with our lives.
Hoboken's 47% Tax Rise Sparks Exodus Talk in Manhattan Option
Hoboken's 47% Tax Rise Sparks Exodus Talk in Manhattan Option
Bloomberg, 1-Dec-08
By Terrence Dopp
The blue property tax statement Andrew Sapira received in the mail last month from Hoboken, New Jersey, has him questioning whether the city billed as a lower-cost alternative to Manhattan is worth it.
A state monitor, installed after city leaders failed to agree on a budget, ordered a 47 percent increase in property taxes for the 40,000-population community across the river from Wall Street, widely known from its portrayal as a blue-collar shipping port in the Oscar-winning 1954 film ``On the Waterfront,'' starring Marlon Brando. Payment is due today.
Sapira, a 40-year-old doctor who lives in a four- bedroom brownstone on Garden Street, said his annual tax bill for city, county and school services will jump to about $21,000 from $16,000. The married father of two says he may have to move from the city he loves for its restaurants, night life and proximity to New York.
``That's a shame, because it's great here,'' Sapira said outside the tax collector's office in city hall last week after making a payment.
Hoboken, cited in a Business Week and PolicyMap.Com study in September as among communities most vulnerable to a Wall Street decline, is a favorite of young professionals. One-third of residents were 25 to 34 years old in 2000, compared with 14 percent for New Jersey, according to the city's master plan.
New Developments
Renovated brownstones and new construction within the city's one square mile (2.6 square kilometers) boundaries have drawn the rich and famous, including Governor Jon Corzine and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. The Maxwell Place waterfront development the governor calls home markets three-bedroom units for more than $1.1 million.
The property tax increase hits citizens at a time when New Jersey's unemployment rate is at a six-year high and with 60 percent of residents telling Quinnipiac University pollsters last month that they are financially worse off than a year ago.
``Businesses are having a hard enough time with the downturn; this is salt in the wounds,'' said Stephen Kilnisan, 58, who owns Traders of Babylon Fine Jewelers at First Street and Willow Avenue and will pay $4,000 more to the city this year. ``The timing couldn't have been worse,'' he said.
The new rates put Hoboken above the average in New Jersey, which had the highest such levies in the country last year. City residents paid an average $5,780 in property taxes in 2007, compared with $6,796 statewide, which was 5.4 percent higher than 2006 as local governments raised their take to cope with less state aid.
Political Squabbles
Discontent is widespread, according to Sapira. ``I blame everyone,'' he said.
Hoboken's finances suffered from political squabbles between the mayor and nine-member council even as the city boomed. New Jersey's local finance board placed Hoboken under state supervision in September after the city missed a deadline for passing a budget for a seventh straight year.
State monitor Judith Tripodi proposed a $120 million budget for the year that began July 1, up from $93 million in fiscal 2008. The higher amount equals about $3,000 per resident. New Brunswick, a city of 50,000 in central New Jersey that is home to Rutgers University, has a budget of $72 million, or $1,449 per resident. The total amount to be raised by municipal taxes in Hoboken surged to $62 million from almost $34 million.
Increases Avoided
Mayor David Roberts, a second-term Democrat whose term expires next year, said that since he took office seven years ago, taxable real estate within Hoboken's borders swelled to more than $10 billion from $2.8 billion.
The city has avoided ``substantial'' tax increases for 16 years, Roberts said, instead using ``one-shot'' revenue items such as selling city assets to balance budgets. Roberts, 52, blamed the council for not amending and passing his spending plan by the start of the fiscal year.
``The citizens of the city are angry at everyone; they're angry at all the bickering and the grandstanding that has taken place,'' Roberts said. ``They feel that because of all the political bickering, they're being punished. And I can't say I disagree with that.''
Councilman Peter Cammarano, 31, said Roberts allowed $10 million more in expenditures than what the council approved in the last fiscal year and provided no suggestions for closing the gap, prompting the budget stalemate. Roberts has said the spending was beyond his control.
Angry Constituents
``You're talking about blunt force trauma,'' Cammarano said. ``People are getting hit at the worst possible time and people are already concerned about the largest asset on their books, which is their home.''
Cammarano said he will pay $250 more each month to his mortgage company, which handles taxes as part of servicing his loan. While the increase, which he likens to ``a small car payment,'' is too much, too fast, there's no option other than to pay, he said.
Property owners aren't the only ones hit by higher taxes, said Nicholas Petruzzelli, a Hoboken Realtor and developer. As many as 60 percent of city residents are renters who will feel the sting as landlords pass on the increase in taxes.
Renters' Pain
Jen Areneo and her husband, who rent a three-bedroom apartment in Hoboken, said the higher taxes will affect the size of the mortgage they can afford when they buy their own place.
``I'm as furious as everyone else,'' Areneo, 31, said as she and a friend watched their children in a playground at Church Square Park.
Corzine, a former Goldman, Sachs & Co. chairman, answering reporters' questions last week during a stop in Jersey City, said he would tell Hoboken residents ``that we are trying to work with them, that we are trying to reduce the rate of growth of property taxes or even try to level them.''
Bloomberg, 1-Dec-08
By Terrence Dopp
The blue property tax statement Andrew Sapira received in the mail last month from Hoboken, New Jersey, has him questioning whether the city billed as a lower-cost alternative to Manhattan is worth it.
A state monitor, installed after city leaders failed to agree on a budget, ordered a 47 percent increase in property taxes for the 40,000-population community across the river from Wall Street, widely known from its portrayal as a blue-collar shipping port in the Oscar-winning 1954 film ``On the Waterfront,'' starring Marlon Brando. Payment is due today.
Sapira, a 40-year-old doctor who lives in a four- bedroom brownstone on Garden Street, said his annual tax bill for city, county and school services will jump to about $21,000 from $16,000. The married father of two says he may have to move from the city he loves for its restaurants, night life and proximity to New York.
``That's a shame, because it's great here,'' Sapira said outside the tax collector's office in city hall last week after making a payment.
Hoboken, cited in a Business Week and PolicyMap.Com study in September as among communities most vulnerable to a Wall Street decline, is a favorite of young professionals. One-third of residents were 25 to 34 years old in 2000, compared with 14 percent for New Jersey, according to the city's master plan.
New Developments
Renovated brownstones and new construction within the city's one square mile (2.6 square kilometers) boundaries have drawn the rich and famous, including Governor Jon Corzine and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning. The Maxwell Place waterfront development the governor calls home markets three-bedroom units for more than $1.1 million.
The property tax increase hits citizens at a time when New Jersey's unemployment rate is at a six-year high and with 60 percent of residents telling Quinnipiac University pollsters last month that they are financially worse off than a year ago.
``Businesses are having a hard enough time with the downturn; this is salt in the wounds,'' said Stephen Kilnisan, 58, who owns Traders of Babylon Fine Jewelers at First Street and Willow Avenue and will pay $4,000 more to the city this year. ``The timing couldn't have been worse,'' he said.
The new rates put Hoboken above the average in New Jersey, which had the highest such levies in the country last year. City residents paid an average $5,780 in property taxes in 2007, compared with $6,796 statewide, which was 5.4 percent higher than 2006 as local governments raised their take to cope with less state aid.
Political Squabbles
Discontent is widespread, according to Sapira. ``I blame everyone,'' he said.
Hoboken's finances suffered from political squabbles between the mayor and nine-member council even as the city boomed. New Jersey's local finance board placed Hoboken under state supervision in September after the city missed a deadline for passing a budget for a seventh straight year.
State monitor Judith Tripodi proposed a $120 million budget for the year that began July 1, up from $93 million in fiscal 2008. The higher amount equals about $3,000 per resident. New Brunswick, a city of 50,000 in central New Jersey that is home to Rutgers University, has a budget of $72 million, or $1,449 per resident. The total amount to be raised by municipal taxes in Hoboken surged to $62 million from almost $34 million.
Increases Avoided
Mayor David Roberts, a second-term Democrat whose term expires next year, said that since he took office seven years ago, taxable real estate within Hoboken's borders swelled to more than $10 billion from $2.8 billion.
The city has avoided ``substantial'' tax increases for 16 years, Roberts said, instead using ``one-shot'' revenue items such as selling city assets to balance budgets. Roberts, 52, blamed the council for not amending and passing his spending plan by the start of the fiscal year.
``The citizens of the city are angry at everyone; they're angry at all the bickering and the grandstanding that has taken place,'' Roberts said. ``They feel that because of all the political bickering, they're being punished. And I can't say I disagree with that.''
Councilman Peter Cammarano, 31, said Roberts allowed $10 million more in expenditures than what the council approved in the last fiscal year and provided no suggestions for closing the gap, prompting the budget stalemate. Roberts has said the spending was beyond his control.
Angry Constituents
``You're talking about blunt force trauma,'' Cammarano said. ``People are getting hit at the worst possible time and people are already concerned about the largest asset on their books, which is their home.''
Cammarano said he will pay $250 more each month to his mortgage company, which handles taxes as part of servicing his loan. While the increase, which he likens to ``a small car payment,'' is too much, too fast, there's no option other than to pay, he said.
Property owners aren't the only ones hit by higher taxes, said Nicholas Petruzzelli, a Hoboken Realtor and developer. As many as 60 percent of city residents are renters who will feel the sting as landlords pass on the increase in taxes.
Renters' Pain
Jen Areneo and her husband, who rent a three-bedroom apartment in Hoboken, said the higher taxes will affect the size of the mortgage they can afford when they buy their own place.
``I'm as furious as everyone else,'' Areneo, 31, said as she and a friend watched their children in a playground at Church Square Park.
Corzine, a former Goldman, Sachs & Co. chairman, answering reporters' questions last week during a stop in Jersey City, said he would tell Hoboken residents ``that we are trying to work with them, that we are trying to reduce the rate of growth of property taxes or even try to level them.''
Forest museum in Pokhara
Forest museum in Pokhara
RSS, 17-Nov-08
The forest product museum has been established for the first time in the premises of Institute of Forestry here.
The museum, constructed targeting students, researchers and tourists, showcases various timber and non-timber products. It is expected to be advantageous to carry out study about forest and its usage.
The museum has included altogether 700 products of timbers and non-timbers, including various 85 species of plant, timber and bamboo, 150 herbs and wildlife leather, said Professor Dr. Abhaya Kumar Das of Institute of Forestry, Pokhara.
He expressed his confidence, "The inception of museum will help undertake intensive study and research about various species of tree, herbs, and plant grown in different climates, altitudes and places."
RSS, 17-Nov-08
The forest product museum has been established for the first time in the premises of Institute of Forestry here.
The museum, constructed targeting students, researchers and tourists, showcases various timber and non-timber products. It is expected to be advantageous to carry out study about forest and its usage.
The museum has included altogether 700 products of timbers and non-timbers, including various 85 species of plant, timber and bamboo, 150 herbs and wildlife leather, said Professor Dr. Abhaya Kumar Das of Institute of Forestry, Pokhara.
He expressed his confidence, "The inception of museum will help undertake intensive study and research about various species of tree, herbs, and plant grown in different climates, altitudes and places."
Sunday, November 30, 2008
100B Guys in Kathmandu
Rabin (122), Rajendra (136), Biswas (105), Raghav (233) and Santosh (142) hanging out at a Kathmandu bar.
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Big Daddy of Nepal's Continuous Political Movement
Claiming Relevance
Mr. Paramendra Bhagat
My Relevance To Nepal Peace Process:
The Butterfly Effect
There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. You have to have some understanding of that theory to appreciate my contribution to the Nepal peace process.
When Baburam suggested multi-party democratic republic as a meeting ground between the Maoists and the Democrats, Prachanda had him arrested early in 2005. Girija and Madhav Nepal were both opposed to the idea of a constituent assembly back then. The idea of a unilateral Maoist ceasefire in late 2005, I authored it. I am the father of the concept of continuous movement in the Nepali context. As late as March 2006 Baburam was pushing for an armed revolution by the eight parties.
And there are idiots out there who want to know why I claim I have played a central role to Nepal's three mass movements.
Other Postings from Mr. Bhagat
1-Jun-08: June 4, 2008 Court Appearance: Prepared Statement: Final Draft
12-Nov-08: Letter To The Department Of Homeland Security
Mr. Paramendra Bhagat
My Relevance To Nepal Peace Process:
The Butterfly EffectThere is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. You have to have some understanding of that theory to appreciate my contribution to the Nepal peace process.
When Baburam suggested multi-party democratic republic as a meeting ground between the Maoists and the Democrats, Prachanda had him arrested early in 2005. Girija and Madhav Nepal were both opposed to the idea of a constituent assembly back then. The idea of a unilateral Maoist ceasefire in late 2005, I authored it. I am the father of the concept of continuous movement in the Nepali context. As late as March 2006 Baburam was pushing for an armed revolution by the eight parties.
And there are idiots out there who want to know why I claim I have played a central role to Nepal's three mass movements.
Other Postings from Mr. Bhagat
1-Jun-08: June 4, 2008 Court Appearance: Prepared Statement: Final Draft
12-Nov-08: Letter To The Department Of Homeland Security
India Calling
The World: India Calling
The New York Times; November 23, 2008
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS; VERLA, India
“WHAT are Papa and I doing here?”
These words, instant-messaged by my mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C., whizzed through the deep-ocean cables and came to me in the village where I’m now living, in the country that she left.
It was five years ago that I left America to come live and work in India. Now, in our family and among our Indian-American friends, other children of immigrants are exploring motherland opportunities. As economies convulse in the West and jobs dry up, the idea is spreading virally in émigré homes.
Which raises a heart-stirring question: If our parents left India and trudged westward for us, if they manufactured from scratch a new life there for us, if they slogged, saved, sacrificed to make our lives lighter than theirs, then what does it mean when we choose to migrate to the place they forsook?
If we are here, what are they doing there?
They came of age in the 1970s, when the “there” seemed paved with possibility and the “here” seemed paved with potholes. As a young trainee, my father felt frustrated in companies that awarded roles based on age, not achievement. He looked at his bosses, 20 years ahead of him in line, and concluded that he didn’t want to spend his life becoming them.
My parents married in India and then embarked to America on a lonely, thrilling adventure. They learned together to drive, shop in malls, paint a house. They decided who and how to be. They kept reinventing themselves, discarding the invention, starting anew. My father became a management consultant, an entrepreneur, a human-resources executive, then a Ph.D. candidate. My mother began as a homemaker, learned ceramics, became a ceramics teacher and then the head of the art department at one of Washington’s best schools.
It was extraordinary, and ordinary: This is what America did to people, what it always has done.
My parents brought us to India every few years as children. I relished time with relatives; but India always felt alien, impenetrable, frozen.
Perhaps it was the survivalism born of scarcity: the fierce pushing to get off the plane, the miserliness even of the rich, the obsession with doctors and engineers and the neglect of all others. Perhaps it was the bureaucracy, the need to know someone to do anything. Or the culture shock of servitude: a child’s horror at reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in an American middle school, then seeing servants slapped and degraded in India.
My firsthand impression of India seemed to confirm the rearview immigrant myth of it: a land of impossibilities. But history bends and swerves, and sometimes swivels fully around.
India, having fruitlessly pursued command economics, tried something new: It liberalized, privatized, globalized. The economy boomed, and hope began to course through towns and villages shackled by fatalism and low expectations.
America, meanwhile, floundered. In a blink of history came 9/11, outsourcing, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, rising economies, rogue nuclear nations, climate change, dwindling oil, a financial crisis.
Pessimism crept into the sunniest nation. A vast majority saw America going astray. Books heralded a “Post-American World.” Even in the wake of a historic presidential election, culminating in a dramatic change in direction, it remained unclear whether the United States could be delivered from its woes any time soon.
“In the U.S., there’s a crisis of confidence,” said Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, the Indian software giant. “In India,” he added, “for the first time after decades or centuries, there is a sense of optimism about the future, a sense that our children’s futures can be better than ours if we try hard enough.”
My love for the country of my birth has never flickered. But these new times piqued interest in my ancestral land. Many of us, the stepchildren of India, felt its change of spirit, felt the gravitational force of condensed hope. And we came.
Exact data on émigrés working in India or spending more time here are scarce. But this is one indicator: India unveiled an Overseas Citizen of India card in 2006, offering foreign citizens of Indian origin visa-free entry for life and making it easier to work in the country. By this July, more than 280,000 émigrés had signed up, according to The Economic Times, a business daily, including 120,000 from the United States.
At first we felt confused by India’s formalities and hierarchies, by British phraseology even the British had jettisoned, by the ubiquity of acronyms. We wondered what newspapers meant when they said, “INSAT-4CR in orbit, DTH to get a boost.” (Apparently, it meant a satellite would soon beam direct-to-home television signals.)
Working in offices, some of us were perplexed to be invited to “S&M conferences,” only to discover that this denoted sales and marketing. Several found to their chagrin that it is acceptable for another man to touch your inner thigh when you crack a joke in a meeting.
We learned new expressions: “He is on tour” (Means: He is traveling. Doesn’t mean: He has joined U2.); “What is your native place?” (Means: Where did your ancestors live? Doesn’t mean: What hospital delivered you?); “Two minutes” (Means: An hour. Doesn’t mean: Two minutes.).
We tried to reinvent ourselves, as our parents had, but in reverse. Some studied Hindi, others yoga. Some visited the Ganges to find themselves; others tried days-long meditations.
Many of us who shunned Indian clothes in youth began wearing kurtas and chappals, saris and churidars. There was a sad truth in this: We had waited for our heritage to become cool to the world before we draped its colors and textures on our own backs.
We learned how to make friends here, and that it requires befriending families. We learned to love here: Men found fondness for the elusive Indian woman; women surprised themselves in succumbing to chauvinistic, mother-spoiled men.
We forged dual-use accents. We spoke in foreign accents by default. But when it came to arguing with accountants or ordering takeout kebabs, we went sing-song Indian.
We gravitated to work specially suited to us. If there is a creative class, in Richard Florida’s phrase, there is also emerging what might be called a fusion class: people positioned to mediate among the multiple societies that claim them.
India’s second-generation returnees have built boutiques that fuse Indian fabrics with Western cuts, founded companies that train a generation to work in Western companies, become dealmakers in investment firms that speak equally to Wall Street and Dalal Street, mixed albums that combine throbbing tabla with Western melodies.
Our parents’ generation helped India from afar. They sent money, advised charities, guided hedge-fund dollars into the Bombay Stock Exchange. But most were too implicated in India to return. Our generation, unscathed by it, was freer to embrace it.
Countries like India once fretted about a “brain drain.” We are learning now that “brain circulation,” as some call it, may be more apt.
India did not export brains; it invested them. It sent millions away. In the freedom of new soil, they flowered. They seeded a new generation that, having blossomed, did what humans have always done: chase the frontier of the future.
Which just happened, for many of us, to be the frontier of our own pasts.
The New York Times; November 23, 2008
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS; VERLA, India
“WHAT are Papa and I doing here?”
These words, instant-messaged by my mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C., whizzed through the deep-ocean cables and came to me in the village where I’m now living, in the country that she left.
It was five years ago that I left America to come live and work in India. Now, in our family and among our Indian-American friends, other children of immigrants are exploring motherland opportunities. As economies convulse in the West and jobs dry up, the idea is spreading virally in émigré homes.
Which raises a heart-stirring question: If our parents left India and trudged westward for us, if they manufactured from scratch a new life there for us, if they slogged, saved, sacrificed to make our lives lighter than theirs, then what does it mean when we choose to migrate to the place they forsook?If we are here, what are they doing there?
They came of age in the 1970s, when the “there” seemed paved with possibility and the “here” seemed paved with potholes. As a young trainee, my father felt frustrated in companies that awarded roles based on age, not achievement. He looked at his bosses, 20 years ahead of him in line, and concluded that he didn’t want to spend his life becoming them.
My parents married in India and then embarked to America on a lonely, thrilling adventure. They learned together to drive, shop in malls, paint a house. They decided who and how to be. They kept reinventing themselves, discarding the invention, starting anew. My father became a management consultant, an entrepreneur, a human-resources executive, then a Ph.D. candidate. My mother began as a homemaker, learned ceramics, became a ceramics teacher and then the head of the art department at one of Washington’s best schools.
It was extraordinary, and ordinary: This is what America did to people, what it always has done.
My parents brought us to India every few years as children. I relished time with relatives; but India always felt alien, impenetrable, frozen.
Perhaps it was the survivalism born of scarcity: the fierce pushing to get off the plane, the miserliness even of the rich, the obsession with doctors and engineers and the neglect of all others. Perhaps it was the bureaucracy, the need to know someone to do anything. Or the culture shock of servitude: a child’s horror at reading “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in an American middle school, then seeing servants slapped and degraded in India.
My firsthand impression of India seemed to confirm the rearview immigrant myth of it: a land of impossibilities. But history bends and swerves, and sometimes swivels fully around.
India, having fruitlessly pursued command economics, tried something new: It liberalized, privatized, globalized. The economy boomed, and hope began to course through towns and villages shackled by fatalism and low expectations.
America, meanwhile, floundered. In a blink of history came 9/11, outsourcing, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, rising economies, rogue nuclear nations, climate change, dwindling oil, a financial crisis.
Pessimism crept into the sunniest nation. A vast majority saw America going astray. Books heralded a “Post-American World.” Even in the wake of a historic presidential election, culminating in a dramatic change in direction, it remained unclear whether the United States could be delivered from its woes any time soon.
“In the U.S., there’s a crisis of confidence,” said Nandan Nilekani, co-chairman of Infosys Technologies, the Indian software giant. “In India,” he added, “for the first time after decades or centuries, there is a sense of optimism about the future, a sense that our children’s futures can be better than ours if we try hard enough.”
My love for the country of my birth has never flickered. But these new times piqued interest in my ancestral land. Many of us, the stepchildren of India, felt its change of spirit, felt the gravitational force of condensed hope. And we came.
Exact data on émigrés working in India or spending more time here are scarce. But this is one indicator: India unveiled an Overseas Citizen of India card in 2006, offering foreign citizens of Indian origin visa-free entry for life and making it easier to work in the country. By this July, more than 280,000 émigrés had signed up, according to The Economic Times, a business daily, including 120,000 from the United States.
At first we felt confused by India’s formalities and hierarchies, by British phraseology even the British had jettisoned, by the ubiquity of acronyms. We wondered what newspapers meant when they said, “INSAT-4CR in orbit, DTH to get a boost.” (Apparently, it meant a satellite would soon beam direct-to-home television signals.)
Working in offices, some of us were perplexed to be invited to “S&M conferences,” only to discover that this denoted sales and marketing. Several found to their chagrin that it is acceptable for another man to touch your inner thigh when you crack a joke in a meeting.
We learned new expressions: “He is on tour” (Means: He is traveling. Doesn’t mean: He has joined U2.); “What is your native place?” (Means: Where did your ancestors live? Doesn’t mean: What hospital delivered you?); “Two minutes” (Means: An hour. Doesn’t mean: Two minutes.).
We tried to reinvent ourselves, as our parents had, but in reverse. Some studied Hindi, others yoga. Some visited the Ganges to find themselves; others tried days-long meditations.
Many of us who shunned Indian clothes in youth began wearing kurtas and chappals, saris and churidars. There was a sad truth in this: We had waited for our heritage to become cool to the world before we draped its colors and textures on our own backs.
We learned how to make friends here, and that it requires befriending families. We learned to love here: Men found fondness for the elusive Indian woman; women surprised themselves in succumbing to chauvinistic, mother-spoiled men.
We forged dual-use accents. We spoke in foreign accents by default. But when it came to arguing with accountants or ordering takeout kebabs, we went sing-song Indian.
We gravitated to work specially suited to us. If there is a creative class, in Richard Florida’s phrase, there is also emerging what might be called a fusion class: people positioned to mediate among the multiple societies that claim them.
India’s second-generation returnees have built boutiques that fuse Indian fabrics with Western cuts, founded companies that train a generation to work in Western companies, become dealmakers in investment firms that speak equally to Wall Street and Dalal Street, mixed albums that combine throbbing tabla with Western melodies.
Our parents’ generation helped India from afar. They sent money, advised charities, guided hedge-fund dollars into the Bombay Stock Exchange. But most were too implicated in India to return. Our generation, unscathed by it, was freer to embrace it.
Countries like India once fretted about a “brain drain.” We are learning now that “brain circulation,” as some call it, may be more apt.
India did not export brains; it invested them. It sent millions away. In the freedom of new soil, they flowered. They seeded a new generation that, having blossomed, did what humans have always done: chase the frontier of the future.
Which just happened, for many of us, to be the frontier of our own pasts.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Baglung women work on AIDS prevention
Baglung women work on AIDS prevention
NepaliTimes, Issue #423 (31-Oct-08 to 6-Nov-08)
Besides remittances, migrant workers are also bringing back HIV
Baglung is called the 'District of Lahures'. It has more migrant workers in proportion to the population than any other district in Nepal.
In villages after villages between Baglung and Beni, houses are shuttered up, and there are only women, the elderly and children to be seen.
The Baglung district administration estimates that 65 percent of the young men in the district live and work in Qatar or Malaysia. They send home an estimated Rs140 million a year in remittances. If the money from Baglung migrant workers in India and soldiers in the Indian Army are added, the total is much more.
But there is more than just cash coming back to Nepal, workers are also bringing home HIV and infecting their wives. Although the Midwestern hill districts of Achham and Doti are worse off because of the higher proportion of unskilled workers in India, the epidemic is spreading in Baglung as well.
Sita Pathak of Balewa in Baglung was happy when her husband moved to India. He came home for holidays and brought back his earnings, but she only realised later that he had also infected her with HIV. By the time she got her test, it was too late.
Her husband died three years ago, and despite the stigma Sita has now turned into an activist to help spread awareness to other women like her whose husbands work abroad. "I only have my daughter and other sisters like me, I will live for them," Sita says.
Devi Pathak is also from Balewa and was also infected by her husband who works in India. When she found out, she contemplated suicide. But like Sita she has dedicated herself to helping others like her.
Sita and Devi work with a local AIDS awareness group that has 70 members, of whom 50 were infected by husbands working in India. At least five of the women were infected by husbands who worked in the Gulf.
"Stigma and ostracisation means that it takes a lot of courage to come out openly to admit they have HIV," says Sitaram Thapa, who works with the AIDS awareness group which works with prospective migrant workers, with their families back home in Nepal and with the general population.
On the main street of Burtibang village there are only old men and women and children on the streets. "If there were jobs here, they wouldn't have left," says 70-year-old Santosh Pun, whose only son when to India to work as a porter and never returned. He was diagnosed as HIV positive and died last year.
Pun's eyes glisten as he tells us: "I have lost my son, but whose duty is it to protect the other sons and daughters of Nepal?"
NepaliTimes, Issue #423 (31-Oct-08 to 6-Nov-08)
Besides remittances, migrant workers are also bringing back HIV
Baglung is called the 'District of Lahures'. It has more migrant workers in proportion to the population than any other district in Nepal.
In villages after villages between Baglung and Beni, houses are shuttered up, and there are only women, the elderly and children to be seen.
The Baglung district administration estimates that 65 percent of the young men in the district live and work in Qatar or Malaysia. They send home an estimated Rs140 million a year in remittances. If the money from Baglung migrant workers in India and soldiers in the Indian Army are added, the total is much more.
But there is more than just cash coming back to Nepal, workers are also bringing home HIV and infecting their wives. Although the Midwestern hill districts of Achham and Doti are worse off because of the higher proportion of unskilled workers in India, the epidemic is spreading in Baglung as well.Sita Pathak of Balewa in Baglung was happy when her husband moved to India. He came home for holidays and brought back his earnings, but she only realised later that he had also infected her with HIV. By the time she got her test, it was too late.
Her husband died three years ago, and despite the stigma Sita has now turned into an activist to help spread awareness to other women like her whose husbands work abroad. "I only have my daughter and other sisters like me, I will live for them," Sita says.
Devi Pathak is also from Balewa and was also infected by her husband who works in India. When she found out, she contemplated suicide. But like Sita she has dedicated herself to helping others like her.
Sita and Devi work with a local AIDS awareness group that has 70 members, of whom 50 were infected by husbands working in India. At least five of the women were infected by husbands who worked in the Gulf.
"Stigma and ostracisation means that it takes a lot of courage to come out openly to admit they have HIV," says Sitaram Thapa, who works with the AIDS awareness group which works with prospective migrant workers, with their families back home in Nepal and with the general population.
On the main street of Burtibang village there are only old men and women and children on the streets. "If there were jobs here, they wouldn't have left," says 70-year-old Santosh Pun, whose only son when to India to work as a porter and never returned. He was diagnosed as HIV positive and died last year.
Pun's eyes glisten as he tells us: "I have lost my son, but whose duty is it to protect the other sons and daughters of Nepal?"
Capital’s gangsters align and realign
Capital’s gangsters align and realign
ekantipur, 15-Nov-08
In the world of the capital's gangland, relationships between the dons and their cronies can often be volatile. Gangsters often ditch their group leaders and join another criminal gang or form criminal group on their own in Kathmandu Valley.
Police say the capital's gang members have always been on the move. They cut off their connection with former bosses -- be they politicians or local goons-- and search new avenues to smoothly operate their underground business.
If police records is anything to go by, some top gangsters, who are the most notorious among dozens of gangsters, had close connections with one another in the past.
But over the last few years, with new gangsters joining the fray, there is more than usual realignments, say police.
"The gangsters in the capital have always been breaking their links with their gang leaders and forging new relations with another group or powerful people," said Senior Superintendent of Police Upendra Kant Aryal. "They are doing this to fulfill their vested ambitions. They cannot remain loyal to anyone, they only look after opportunity. "
Some of the gangsters associated with Deepak Manage 'Rajeev Gurung' and Chakre Milan, two of the most powerful gangsters, have already ditched these dons and established themselves as gang leaders in different parts of the Valley, says an inspector from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division.
For instance, Kumar 'Ghainte' Shrestha has formed his own gang after he developed a bitter relation with Manage. Police said the old-time rivalry of these gang members also prompt gang fights and criminal activities.
On Nov. 9, Ghainte shot Amit Lama, owner of Club Platinum, a discotheque located at Durbar Marg, for no apparent reason. But actually, according to the police, Ghainte had aimed at Dawa Lama, a member of Manage group, who was with Amit Lama. In fact, according to police, Amit Lama had a good rapport with Ghainte.
Extortion from businessmen, submitting tender bids and sand mining from different parts in the capital are the main sources of income of these gangsters. They also run business establishments like restaurants and dance bars in the Valley.
Police say gangsters are also allied with powerful political parties -- some are in contact with the Maoists, CPN-UML, Nepali Congress, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and others.
But like opportunist politicians, gangsters too break their alliance with one political party and get close to another one in search of better opportunities and income. Police sources said some of the top gangsters had come in contact with the Young Communist League (YCL) in the past. Now the same gangsters are in contact with the Youth Force, police claim.
Ghainte is said to be close with Nepali Congress, Chakre Milan with CPN-UML, Deepak Manage with Nepali Congress. Manage was also close with RPP and Maoists in the past, according to the inspector who did not want his name to be mentioned.
ekantipur, 15-Nov-08
In the world of the capital's gangland, relationships between the dons and their cronies can often be volatile. Gangsters often ditch their group leaders and join another criminal gang or form criminal group on their own in Kathmandu Valley.
Police say the capital's gang members have always been on the move. They cut off their connection with former bosses -- be they politicians or local goons-- and search new avenues to smoothly operate their underground business.
If police records is anything to go by, some top gangsters, who are the most notorious among dozens of gangsters, had close connections with one another in the past.
But over the last few years, with new gangsters joining the fray, there is more than usual realignments, say police.
"The gangsters in the capital have always been breaking their links with their gang leaders and forging new relations with another group or powerful people," said Senior Superintendent of Police Upendra Kant Aryal. "They are doing this to fulfill their vested ambitions. They cannot remain loyal to anyone, they only look after opportunity. "
Some of the gangsters associated with Deepak Manage 'Rajeev Gurung' and Chakre Milan, two of the most powerful gangsters, have already ditched these dons and established themselves as gang leaders in different parts of the Valley, says an inspector from the Metropolitan Police Crime Division.
For instance, Kumar 'Ghainte' Shrestha has formed his own gang after he developed a bitter relation with Manage. Police said the old-time rivalry of these gang members also prompt gang fights and criminal activities.
On Nov. 9, Ghainte shot Amit Lama, owner of Club Platinum, a discotheque located at Durbar Marg, for no apparent reason. But actually, according to the police, Ghainte had aimed at Dawa Lama, a member of Manage group, who was with Amit Lama. In fact, according to police, Amit Lama had a good rapport with Ghainte.
Extortion from businessmen, submitting tender bids and sand mining from different parts in the capital are the main sources of income of these gangsters. They also run business establishments like restaurants and dance bars in the Valley.
Police say gangsters are also allied with powerful political parties -- some are in contact with the Maoists, CPN-UML, Nepali Congress, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) and others.
But like opportunist politicians, gangsters too break their alliance with one political party and get close to another one in search of better opportunities and income. Police sources said some of the top gangsters had come in contact with the Young Communist League (YCL) in the past. Now the same gangsters are in contact with the Youth Force, police claim.
Ghainte is said to be close with Nepali Congress, Chakre Milan with CPN-UML, Deepak Manage with Nepali Congress. Manage was also close with RPP and Maoists in the past, according to the inspector who did not want his name to be mentioned.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Kathmandu goes digital with online city-guide
Kathmandu goes digital with online city-guide
Nepalnews, 2-Oct-08
Savant Associates has unveiled mapmandu.com, the first online city-guide of Kathmandu. Mapmandu uses an interactive mapping engine to facilitate localized search of destinations in Kathmandu on a digitalized map. It provides the users with up-to-date online information and other extensive services on various aspects of city life in Kathmandu.
Mapmandu can be used by everyone as a comprehensive online directory of all destinations in Kathmandu. Users can navigate and pan through various levels of map or tap into Mapmandu's search to show local points of interest and their detailed information. Mapmandu combines satellite imagery, digital maps and search to put information on Kathmandu at your fingertips.
CEO of Savant Associates, Lokesh S. Shrestha, says Mapmandu is an attempt to organize and digitize information on various aspects of the city, and at the same time, have Kathmandu enthusiasts share their views and experiences on those aspects of city life.
Nepalnews, 2-Oct-08
Savant Associates has unveiled mapmandu.com, the first online city-guide of Kathmandu. Mapmandu uses an interactive mapping engine to facilitate localized search of destinations in Kathmandu on a digitalized map. It provides the users with up-to-date online information and other extensive services on various aspects of city life in Kathmandu.
Mapmandu can be used by everyone as a comprehensive online directory of all destinations in Kathmandu. Users can navigate and pan through various levels of map or tap into Mapmandu's search to show local points of interest and their detailed information. Mapmandu combines satellite imagery, digital maps and search to put information on Kathmandu at your fingertips.CEO of Savant Associates, Lokesh S. Shrestha, says Mapmandu is an attempt to organize and digitize information on various aspects of the city, and at the same time, have Kathmandu enthusiasts share their views and experiences on those aspects of city life.
Friday, November 14, 2008
NYC’s ice rinks offer chilly fun
NYC’s ice rinks offer chilly fun
amNew York
BY ElaiNE PaoloNi
Spinning on the ice in Rockefeller Center or Central Park may be what winter dreams are made of. But if you forego the iconic imagery, you can also escape the tourist crowds. So whether you can land a double axel like Michelle Kwan or are more of a human Zamboni, sweeping the ice with your rear, check out some of the city’s “other” ice rinks.
Long Island City
47-32 32nd Pl.
718-706-6667
Around Thanksgiving through May
$5 weekdays, $8 weekends; $6 skate rental
Set up on a rooftop, the brand new City Ice Pavilion is an NHL sized ice-skating dome. Public skating will be offered daily, and open hockey sessions will also be scheduled. In addition, there will be skating classes and a youth hockey league. Individuals and organizations can rent out the space out for special events, including birthday parties. And if you’re worried about running out of energy on the ice, rest assured there will be a coffee bar and a snack bar to refuel.
South Street Seaport
Pier 17, South and Fulton streets
212-661-6640
Nov. 28 to Feb. 28
$5; $7 skate rental
The plans to redevelop South Street Seaport may still be in the early stages, but this season’s addition of Seaport Ice is already a big change. The 8,000-square-foot rink — large enough for 325 skaters — will be open to the public seven days a week. An adjacent 3,500-square-foot heated tent area will include lockers, a bag check and a snack shop. Private and group lessons will also be available. Non-skating events include live music and the annual lighting of the Seaport Chorus Tree.
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Avery Avenue and 131st Street, Queens
718-271-7572
Year-round (scheduled to open mid-December)
$5 weekdays, $8 weekends; $7 skate rental
The ice may have melted for good at the Worlds Fair Ice Skating Rink earlier this year, but the park’s new aquatic center and 85-by-200-foot, NHL-standard indoor rink (still under construction) is gearing up for action. The World Ice Arena, just a short walk from the No. 7 train, will be open 365 days a year for general skating. It will also host a number of hockey leagues under its super-high ceilings.
American Museum of Natural History
Columbus Avenue and 79th Street
212-769-5200
Nov. 21 to Feb. 28
$10 adults, $9 students and seniors, $8 children, $2 less for members; FREE skate rental
For an arctic-like experience, check out the museum’s new outdoor Polar Rink. Situated on the Arthur Ross Terrace, the 150-by- 80-foot rink will accommodate 200 people during 45-minute skating sessions. The synthetic ice will be visually anchored by a 17-foot, stainless steel polar bear. And, of course, the rink will be educational: Skaters will whiz by information about polar bears and the polar regions, as well as tips on environmentally responsible living. There will be benches surrounding the ice for those who want to rest; those who want to warm up can head inside for hot chocolate and other snacks.
Prospect Park
Near Parkside/Ocean Ave. entrance, Brooklyn
718-287-6431
Nov. 19 through March
$5 adults, $3 children; $6.50skate rental (cash only)
Although construction on two new rinks is expected to begin next year, you can still spend an afternoon at Kate Wollman rink skating with friends. Sign up for a group or private lesson; for those looking for a starry-eyed “Serendipity” moment, rent out this Wollman rink for just you and your sweetheart. Snacks and beverages are sold on-site. Free lockers are also available, but bring your own lock.
Bryant Park
Sixth Avenue at 41st Street
212-661-6640
Through Jan. 25
FREE; $12 skate rental
The combination of The Pond at Bryant Park, its heated rink-side lounge and the surrounding market stalls (from Nov. 22 to Dec. 28) make this a fun holiday destination. The 17,000-squarefoot ice rink can accommodate 500 people. A number of special performances and events, including live music and wine tastings, are also part of the spectacle.
Chelsea Piers
Pier 61, West Side Highway at 23rd Street
212-336-6100
Year-round
$12.50 adults, $10 children; $7 skate rental
Ice-skating gets comprehensive coverage at Chelsea Piers’ indoor Sky Rink. In addition to general ice-skating, you can go to skating school, join youth and adult hockey leagues and send the kids to summer ice-skating camp. There’s also a shop that offers skating apparel and equipment, and skate sharpening and repair. From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays through Nov. 23, check out the rink’s Fall Family Special, which includes admission, skate rental, a slice of pizza and a fountain drink for $15 per adult and $10 per child.
Riverbank State Park
679 Riverside Drive at 145th Street
212-694-3600
Mid-November through first week of April
$5 adults, $3 children; $5 skate rental
Although this alfresco rink has a roof to protect skaters from the harsh winter elements, you still have to bundle up when you’re out on the ice. Beginner kids and adults can start with basic skating lessons and progress to more advanced levels. Other programs include ice hockey, ice dancing and figure skating. In the off-season, the neighborhood arena becomes a roller/ inline skating facility.
amNew York
BY ElaiNE PaoloNi
Spinning on the ice in Rockefeller Center or Central Park may be what winter dreams are made of. But if you forego the iconic imagery, you can also escape the tourist crowds. So whether you can land a double axel like Michelle Kwan or are more of a human Zamboni, sweeping the ice with your rear, check out some of the city’s “other” ice rinks.Long Island City
47-32 32nd Pl.
718-706-6667
Around Thanksgiving through May
$5 weekdays, $8 weekends; $6 skate rental
Set up on a rooftop, the brand new City Ice Pavilion is an NHL sized ice-skating dome. Public skating will be offered daily, and open hockey sessions will also be scheduled. In addition, there will be skating classes and a youth hockey league. Individuals and organizations can rent out the space out for special events, including birthday parties. And if you’re worried about running out of energy on the ice, rest assured there will be a coffee bar and a snack bar to refuel.
South Street Seaport
Pier 17, South and Fulton streets
212-661-6640
Nov. 28 to Feb. 28
$5; $7 skate rental
The plans to redevelop South Street Seaport may still be in the early stages, but this season’s addition of Seaport Ice is already a big change. The 8,000-square-foot rink — large enough for 325 skaters — will be open to the public seven days a week. An adjacent 3,500-square-foot heated tent area will include lockers, a bag check and a snack shop. Private and group lessons will also be available. Non-skating events include live music and the annual lighting of the Seaport Chorus Tree.Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Avery Avenue and 131st Street, Queens
718-271-7572
Year-round (scheduled to open mid-December)
$5 weekdays, $8 weekends; $7 skate rental
The ice may have melted for good at the Worlds Fair Ice Skating Rink earlier this year, but the park’s new aquatic center and 85-by-200-foot, NHL-standard indoor rink (still under construction) is gearing up for action. The World Ice Arena, just a short walk from the No. 7 train, will be open 365 days a year for general skating. It will also host a number of hockey leagues under its super-high ceilings.
American Museum of Natural History
Columbus Avenue and 79th Street
212-769-5200
Nov. 21 to Feb. 28
$10 adults, $9 students and seniors, $8 children, $2 less for members; FREE skate rental
For an arctic-like experience, check out the museum’s new outdoor Polar Rink. Situated on the Arthur Ross Terrace, the 150-by- 80-foot rink will accommodate 200 people during 45-minute skating sessions. The synthetic ice will be visually anchored by a 17-foot, stainless steel polar bear. And, of course, the rink will be educational: Skaters will whiz by information about polar bears and the polar regions, as well as tips on environmentally responsible living. There will be benches surrounding the ice for those who want to rest; those who want to warm up can head inside for hot chocolate and other snacks.Prospect Park
Near Parkside/Ocean Ave. entrance, Brooklyn
718-287-6431
Nov. 19 through March
$5 adults, $3 children; $6.50skate rental (cash only)
Although construction on two new rinks is expected to begin next year, you can still spend an afternoon at Kate Wollman rink skating with friends. Sign up for a group or private lesson; for those looking for a starry-eyed “Serendipity” moment, rent out this Wollman rink for just you and your sweetheart. Snacks and beverages are sold on-site. Free lockers are also available, but bring your own lock.
Bryant Park
Sixth Avenue at 41st Street
212-661-6640
Through Jan. 25
FREE; $12 skate rental
The combination of The Pond at Bryant Park, its heated rink-side lounge and the surrounding market stalls (from Nov. 22 to Dec. 28) make this a fun holiday destination. The 17,000-squarefoot ice rink can accommodate 500 people. A number of special performances and events, including live music and wine tastings, are also part of the spectacle.
Chelsea Piers
Pier 61, West Side Highway at 23rd Street
212-336-6100
Year-round
$12.50 adults, $10 children; $7 skate rental
Ice-skating gets comprehensive coverage at Chelsea Piers’ indoor Sky Rink. In addition to general ice-skating, you can go to skating school, join youth and adult hockey leagues and send the kids to summer ice-skating camp. There’s also a shop that offers skating apparel and equipment, and skate sharpening and repair. From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays through Nov. 23, check out the rink’s Fall Family Special, which includes admission, skate rental, a slice of pizza and a fountain drink for $15 per adult and $10 per child.
Riverbank State Park
679 Riverside Drive at 145th Street
212-694-3600
Mid-November through first week of April
$5 adults, $3 children; $5 skate rental
Although this alfresco rink has a roof to protect skaters from the harsh winter elements, you still have to bundle up when you’re out on the ice. Beginner kids and adults can start with basic skating lessons and progress to more advanced levels. Other programs include ice hockey, ice dancing and figure skating. In the off-season, the neighborhood arena becomes a roller/ inline skating facility.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Fired Wall Street Workers to Seek Jobs at `Pink Slip Party'
Fired Wall Street Workers to Seek Jobs at `Pink Slip Party'
Bloomberg, 11-Nov-08
By Elizabeth Hester
As many as 500 fired Wall Street workers will pay $20 tonight to network, commiserate and drink discount beer for a good cause.
The Pink Slip Party, to be held at midtown Manhattan bar Public House, will also feature at least 15 recruiters and performance coaches, according to one of the organizers, Rachel Pine. It aims to raise $10,000 for Ronald McDonald House of New York, which provides temporary housing for pediatric cancer patients and their families.
``I'm absolutely going to sniff around and see if I can pick off some talent,'' said Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC, an eight-person firm in Chatham, New Jersey. ``If I see somebody who lives out in our area who is interested in setting up, we'd give them a shot.''
The party, sponsored by Wall Street blog Dealbreaker.com and TheLadders.com, a job search site, mimics events held after the Internet bubble and the Sept. 11 attacks. The credit crisis that claimed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co.
and Bear Stearns Cos. may cost New York about 45,000 finance- related jobs, according to Governor David Paterson.
``If you've got misery, we've got company,'' is Dealbreaker's way of advertising the party on its Web site.
Resumes to Collect
Stacy Lentz, managing director at recruiting firm Taylor Grey Inc., said she plans to attend the party to help fill about 20 positions. Her company works with clients in financial services including hedge funds and private-equity firms.
``I want to collect as many resumes as possible because I may not have a job today, but I might tomorrow,'' said Lentz, who has been recruiting for 15 years.
Ronald McDonald House already had a brush with the fallout from Wall Street's meltdown. Its gala fundraiser in May honored Alan Schwartz -- the Bear Stearns chief executive officer who was forced to sell his firm to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in March.
That event met its goal of raising $3 million.
Like many non-profits, Ronald McDonald House expects fundraising to slow next year as the economy enters recession, said Rick Martin, the director of development. Its $13 million annual budget is funded almost entirely by donations.
``We're kind of starting from square one for next year on a few things,'' Martin said. About 80 percent of its board members, such as Kenneth Langone, former head of the New York Stock Exchange compensation committee, work in financial services, Martin said.
Charitable giving rises about 4.3 percent in a year when the economy is strong and drops by at least 1 percent when a recession hits, according to a four-decade study by Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy and the Glenview, Illinois- based GivingUSA Foundation, which tracks U.S. trends in donations.
``The idea was charities are going to be hurting this year,'' Pine said. ``People have much less money to give and we wanted to help a great New York charity.''
Bloomberg, 11-Nov-08
By Elizabeth Hester
As many as 500 fired Wall Street workers will pay $20 tonight to network, commiserate and drink discount beer for a good cause.
The Pink Slip Party, to be held at midtown Manhattan bar Public House, will also feature at least 15 recruiters and performance coaches, according to one of the organizers, Rachel Pine. It aims to raise $10,000 for Ronald McDonald House of New York, which provides temporary housing for pediatric cancer patients and their families.
``I'm absolutely going to sniff around and see if I can pick off some talent,'' said Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading LLC, an eight-person firm in Chatham, New Jersey. ``If I see somebody who lives out in our area who is interested in setting up, we'd give them a shot.''The party, sponsored by Wall Street blog Dealbreaker.com and TheLadders.com, a job search site, mimics events held after the Internet bubble and the Sept. 11 attacks. The credit crisis that claimed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co.
and Bear Stearns Cos. may cost New York about 45,000 finance- related jobs, according to Governor David Paterson.
``If you've got misery, we've got company,'' is Dealbreaker's way of advertising the party on its Web site.
Resumes to Collect
Stacy Lentz, managing director at recruiting firm Taylor Grey Inc., said she plans to attend the party to help fill about 20 positions. Her company works with clients in financial services including hedge funds and private-equity firms.
``I want to collect as many resumes as possible because I may not have a job today, but I might tomorrow,'' said Lentz, who has been recruiting for 15 years.
Ronald McDonald House already had a brush with the fallout from Wall Street's meltdown. Its gala fundraiser in May honored Alan Schwartz -- the Bear Stearns chief executive officer who was forced to sell his firm to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in March.
That event met its goal of raising $3 million.
Like many non-profits, Ronald McDonald House expects fundraising to slow next year as the economy enters recession, said Rick Martin, the director of development. Its $13 million annual budget is funded almost entirely by donations.
``We're kind of starting from square one for next year on a few things,'' Martin said. About 80 percent of its board members, such as Kenneth Langone, former head of the New York Stock Exchange compensation committee, work in financial services, Martin said.
Charitable giving rises about 4.3 percent in a year when the economy is strong and drops by at least 1 percent when a recession hits, according to a four-decade study by Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy and the Glenview, Illinois- based GivingUSA Foundation, which tracks U.S. trends in donations.
``The idea was charities are going to be hurting this year,'' Pine said. ``People have much less money to give and we wanted to help a great New York charity.''
Wall Street's Jobless Try Cupcakes, Cheap Haircuts, Maybe Omaha
Wall Street's Jobless Try Cupcakes, Cheap Haircuts, Maybe Omaha
Bloomberg, 15-Aug-08
By Caroline Salas and Pierre Paulden
Jessica Walter didn't go to Harvard University to study cupcakes, but they're what she does since losing her job as a vice president in credit strategy at Bear Stearns Cos.
``I want to teach kids to cook,'' said Walter, 27, who founded Cupcake Kids! in New York to provide birthday parties and cooking classes for children. ``The goal is to have this be my full-time job and make enough to live.''
Wall Street professionals are trying new careers, and fetching smaller salaries, amid the elimination of 76,670 investment jobs in the Americas following the global credit crunch that started a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Bankers are ``buying businesses for themselves, moving west or to Europe, including Russia, or to Dubai,'' said Jeanne Branthover, managing director of Boyden Global Executive Search in New York. ``They're also moving totally outside what they do, buying a retail store or a ranch.''
About 33,300 finance jobs in New York City, or 7.1 percent of the 2007 peak, will be cut by June 2009, the Independent Budget Office, a non-partisan monitor of city finances, estimated in a May report.
Expansion Plan
``The job market is in the worst, most chaotic state I've ever seen it in fixed income,'' said Michael Maloney, who recruits finance professionals for Maloney Inc. in New York.
``I've been doing this for over 30 years and I've never seen anything like this.''
Half the people working in debt sales, trading or research in New York at the beginning of 2007 will have been fired by the end of this year or won't get a bonus, Maloney estimated.
Jeff Salmon said job jitters prompted him to swap investing in asset-backed securities at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for keeping the books at a hair salon. He and his wife, Olga, opened a Great Clips franchise in Mercerville, New Jersey, that offers
$12 haircuts for both men and women.
``The structured finance market is so bleak right now, it makes sense for us to focus our energies on this,'' said Salmon, 49. ``It's refreshing to not have to worry about whether I am going to have a job next week.'' The couple plans to open another Great Clips in October.
Pay Cuts
Traders and bankers who leave finance can expect to earn a fraction of what they used to make. Compensation for employees on Wall Street averaged $399,360 in 2007, compared with $62,390 for New York City jobs outside the securities industry, according to the state comptroller's office.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which has cut 1,500 jobs, paid its employees an average of $661,490 last year, company filings show.
Walter, who studied economics at Harvard, is among those welcoming the opportunity to try something radically different.
``The biggest thing that I enjoy is being the jack-of-all trades of having my own business,'' she said. ``It's a challenge.''
Bear Stearns, where Walter worked, was facing bankruptcy before being acquired in May by JPMorgan Chase & Co., which fired 55 percent of Bear's 14,000 employees. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has eliminated 6,390 employees and Citigroup Inc.
has cut 14,100, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Turning to Teaching
``The most affected areas are structured finance, CDOs and mortgages,'' said Arturo Cifuentes, managing director of New York-based R.W. Pressprich & Co., which trades derivatives.
``Over one-third of jobs in this area are gone for the next five or ten years.''
Gary Witt left as a managing director in structured finance at Moody's Investors Service to teach finance and statistics at Temple University in Philadelphia.
``It's hard to say if things were going well would I have left,'' said Witt, 49. ``It didn't look like the industry would be any fun for the next few years.''
Moody's, the oldest credit-ratings company, eliminated 275 jobs, or 7.5 percent of its workforce, to cope with a plunge in bond sales that sliced revenue from credit ratings.
Bond salesmen and traders are trying everything from bartending to real-estate sales to make insurance and tuition payments for their families, Maloney said.
``I know a few guys that started gambling, playing poker to pay the bills,'' he said. ``Especially ex-traders.''
Joshua Perksy took to the streets after being laid off as an investment banker at Los Angeles-based Houlihan Lokey. He strolled New York's Park Avenue in June wearing a sandwich board reading ``Experienced MIT Grad For Hire.''
``It's been slow and frustrating,'' said Persky, 48. ``The only places to turn are hedge funds and boutique banks. I've never been unemployed this long.''
While his gambit generated some job leads, none has panned out so far, Persky said. He's considering a move to Omaha, Nebraska.
Bloomberg, 15-Aug-08
By Caroline Salas and Pierre Paulden
Jessica Walter didn't go to Harvard University to study cupcakes, but they're what she does since losing her job as a vice president in credit strategy at Bear Stearns Cos.
``I want to teach kids to cook,'' said Walter, 27, who founded Cupcake Kids! in New York to provide birthday parties and cooking classes for children. ``The goal is to have this be my full-time job and make enough to live.''Wall Street professionals are trying new careers, and fetching smaller salaries, amid the elimination of 76,670 investment jobs in the Americas following the global credit crunch that started a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Bankers are ``buying businesses for themselves, moving west or to Europe, including Russia, or to Dubai,'' said Jeanne Branthover, managing director of Boyden Global Executive Search in New York. ``They're also moving totally outside what they do, buying a retail store or a ranch.''
About 33,300 finance jobs in New York City, or 7.1 percent of the 2007 peak, will be cut by June 2009, the Independent Budget Office, a non-partisan monitor of city finances, estimated in a May report.
Expansion Plan
``The job market is in the worst, most chaotic state I've ever seen it in fixed income,'' said Michael Maloney, who recruits finance professionals for Maloney Inc. in New York.
``I've been doing this for over 30 years and I've never seen anything like this.''
Half the people working in debt sales, trading or research in New York at the beginning of 2007 will have been fired by the end of this year or won't get a bonus, Maloney estimated.
Jeff Salmon said job jitters prompted him to swap investing in asset-backed securities at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for keeping the books at a hair salon. He and his wife, Olga, opened a Great Clips franchise in Mercerville, New Jersey, that offers
$12 haircuts for both men and women.
``The structured finance market is so bleak right now, it makes sense for us to focus our energies on this,'' said Salmon, 49. ``It's refreshing to not have to worry about whether I am going to have a job next week.'' The couple plans to open another Great Clips in October.
Pay Cuts
Traders and bankers who leave finance can expect to earn a fraction of what they used to make. Compensation for employees on Wall Street averaged $399,360 in 2007, compared with $62,390 for New York City jobs outside the securities industry, according to the state comptroller's office.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which has cut 1,500 jobs, paid its employees an average of $661,490 last year, company filings show.
Walter, who studied economics at Harvard, is among those welcoming the opportunity to try something radically different.
``The biggest thing that I enjoy is being the jack-of-all trades of having my own business,'' she said. ``It's a challenge.''
Bear Stearns, where Walter worked, was facing bankruptcy before being acquired in May by JPMorgan Chase & Co., which fired 55 percent of Bear's 14,000 employees. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. has eliminated 6,390 employees and Citigroup Inc.
has cut 14,100, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Turning to Teaching
``The most affected areas are structured finance, CDOs and mortgages,'' said Arturo Cifuentes, managing director of New York-based R.W. Pressprich & Co., which trades derivatives.
``Over one-third of jobs in this area are gone for the next five or ten years.''
Gary Witt left as a managing director in structured finance at Moody's Investors Service to teach finance and statistics at Temple University in Philadelphia.
``It's hard to say if things were going well would I have left,'' said Witt, 49. ``It didn't look like the industry would be any fun for the next few years.''
Moody's, the oldest credit-ratings company, eliminated 275 jobs, or 7.5 percent of its workforce, to cope with a plunge in bond sales that sliced revenue from credit ratings.
Bond salesmen and traders are trying everything from bartending to real-estate sales to make insurance and tuition payments for their families, Maloney said.
``I know a few guys that started gambling, playing poker to pay the bills,'' he said. ``Especially ex-traders.''
Joshua Perksy took to the streets after being laid off as an investment banker at Los Angeles-based Houlihan Lokey. He strolled New York's Park Avenue in June wearing a sandwich board reading ``Experienced MIT Grad For Hire.''
``It's been slow and frustrating,'' said Persky, 48. ``The only places to turn are hedge funds and boutique banks. I've never been unemployed this long.''
While his gambit generated some job leads, none has panned out so far, Persky said. He's considering a move to Omaha, Nebraska.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
One of the better commentaries on Obama Victory
Obama Takes His Outside Game to the Inside
Bloomberg, 6-Nov-08
By Margaret Carlson
How fast we journalists move so as not to be left behind or be seen as sentimental.
I expect a story any minute that President-elect Barack Obama is moving too fast, or not fast enough. That his first hire, that of Representative Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff by way of the Clinton Administration, is a sign he's just a hack. That he isn't doing enough to grasp the gracious olive branch extended by the man he defeated, Senator John McCain. The puppy he promised his daughters is the wrong breed.
It's coming. It always does.
For a day at least, let's stop and celebrate the improbable assumption of the highest office in the land by this outsider with no birthright, no connections, no mentors. Lyndon Johnson had Sam Rayburn. Harry Truman had the Pendergast gang. Dwight Eisenhower had George Marshall and the Lodges. John F. Kennedy had his dad. Ronald Reagan was mentored by an entire movement looking for a new face.
Obama's would-be rabbis came to him in Chicago and tried to persuade the community organizer to abandon his first bids for office. He once went to a Chicago bigwig and was asked who sent him. ``Nobody,'' Obama answered. ``We don't want nobody nobody sent,'' he was told.
At the 2000 Democratic convention, he couldn't get a floor pass. He couldn't even cadge an invitation to the Illinois delegation's parties. He watched most of the speeches on television. He left early.
Unknown Obama
In 2004, he got a speaking part at the convention but not when the networks were broadcasting. Still, the speech was so captivating, he entered the Fleet Center in Boston unknown and left a local hero. The delegates cheered. Cops reached out to shake his hand. The party sent money for his Senate race.
His 15 minutes was interrupted as he made his way home the next day on the $285 ticket he had purchased himself. He was pulled out of line to be frisked for flying while black with a Muslim name.
Even as he won his Senate seat, the skinny kid with the funny name was an island of one belonging to no easily recognizable group. His father grew up in a tin hut in Kenya. His Kansan flower-child Mom, who rose at 4 a.m. to tutor her son, turned him over to his grandparents at age 10 while she finished a graduate degree in anthropology.
They were Kansans who ended up in Hawaii: Obama's grandfather, who fought in World War II, was an outgoing furniture salesman; his grandmother, whom he spied watching him shoot hoops from their two-bedroom condo, worked her way up from secretary to vice president of a bank, saving enough along the way to send Obama to the best private schools.
Role of Race
In his early days running for president, the party and the presumption of success belonged to Senator Hillary Clinton, who initially claimed the lion's share of the black vote as well. He was too black for some in the white power structure, too white for many African-Americans who couldn't identify with someone nobody in the civil-rights movement sent. Obama pointed out that when he hailed a cab, he was black.
Race played a role in the election, but not the one we expected. Obama won more than 90 percent of the black vote, but Al Gore came close to that, the difference being how many cried casting their ballots Tuesday. People who said race was important to them, voted for Obama. People who said it wasn't important voted for Obama. He won more white votes than John Kerry.
Somewhere some couldn't bring themselves to vote for Obama because he's black, but they are a minority in this country now.
Avoiding the Personal
As a loner, Obama didn't run a predictable campaign, mouth the standard lines, get personal. In September, he passed up an easy three-pointer as the momentum was shifting to McCain, and Governor Sarah Palin was a fresh shooting star. When asked about the newly revealed pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old unwed daughter, he didn't sniff ``no comment'' as if a pile of manure beyond acknowledgement had been set before him. He said it had no relevance.
``My mother had me when she was 18,'' he said. ``How family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics.'' It didn't matter that Republicans would have had a field day had positions been reversed. Whoever started the dirty fighting, someone had to stop it.
He had help in toppling the barrier as old as America itself: from McCain who lost his way with a running mate 60 percent of the country didn't trust to be president; from two wars; and from a crumbling economy. A friend said that if the cost of electing Obama was losing 80 percent of her 401(k), it was worth it.
All for One
On the eve of the election in Manassas, Virginia, where battles once were fought to keep blacks as slaves, almost 100,000 people came to an open field to hear Obama. The remarkable part of the evening wasn't Obama's speech but that a fully integrated crowd in the Confederate home state of Robert E. Lee heard it.
Unlike a high-school cafeteria, a church, or many neighborhoods, blacks and Latinos were sprinkled throughout, elbow to elbow, mingling happily. It was a county fair without the prize bull and cotton candy, a wedding without the bride, the Fourth of July and the World Series rolled into one.
And so it was Tuesday night in Grant Park in Chicago, as the outsider became the ultimate insider and begins the humbling task of repairing the country. We are not ``red states and blue states,'' Obama said. ``We are and always will be the United States of America.''
Margaret Carlson, author of ``Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House'' and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Bloomberg, 6-Nov-08
By Margaret Carlson
How fast we journalists move so as not to be left behind or be seen as sentimental.
I expect a story any minute that President-elect Barack Obama is moving too fast, or not fast enough. That his first hire, that of Representative Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff by way of the Clinton Administration, is a sign he's just a hack. That he isn't doing enough to grasp the gracious olive branch extended by the man he defeated, Senator John McCain. The puppy he promised his daughters is the wrong breed.
It's coming. It always does.
For a day at least, let's stop and celebrate the improbable assumption of the highest office in the land by this outsider with no birthright, no connections, no mentors. Lyndon Johnson had Sam Rayburn. Harry Truman had the Pendergast gang. Dwight Eisenhower had George Marshall and the Lodges. John F. Kennedy had his dad. Ronald Reagan was mentored by an entire movement looking for a new face.
Obama's would-be rabbis came to him in Chicago and tried to persuade the community organizer to abandon his first bids for office. He once went to a Chicago bigwig and was asked who sent him. ``Nobody,'' Obama answered. ``We don't want nobody nobody sent,'' he was told.At the 2000 Democratic convention, he couldn't get a floor pass. He couldn't even cadge an invitation to the Illinois delegation's parties. He watched most of the speeches on television. He left early.
Unknown Obama
In 2004, he got a speaking part at the convention but not when the networks were broadcasting. Still, the speech was so captivating, he entered the Fleet Center in Boston unknown and left a local hero. The delegates cheered. Cops reached out to shake his hand. The party sent money for his Senate race.
His 15 minutes was interrupted as he made his way home the next day on the $285 ticket he had purchased himself. He was pulled out of line to be frisked for flying while black with a Muslim name.
Even as he won his Senate seat, the skinny kid with the funny name was an island of one belonging to no easily recognizable group. His father grew up in a tin hut in Kenya. His Kansan flower-child Mom, who rose at 4 a.m. to tutor her son, turned him over to his grandparents at age 10 while she finished a graduate degree in anthropology.
They were Kansans who ended up in Hawaii: Obama's grandfather, who fought in World War II, was an outgoing furniture salesman; his grandmother, whom he spied watching him shoot hoops from their two-bedroom condo, worked her way up from secretary to vice president of a bank, saving enough along the way to send Obama to the best private schools.
Role of Race
In his early days running for president, the party and the presumption of success belonged to Senator Hillary Clinton, who initially claimed the lion's share of the black vote as well. He was too black for some in the white power structure, too white for many African-Americans who couldn't identify with someone nobody in the civil-rights movement sent. Obama pointed out that when he hailed a cab, he was black.
Race played a role in the election, but not the one we expected. Obama won more than 90 percent of the black vote, but Al Gore came close to that, the difference being how many cried casting their ballots Tuesday. People who said race was important to them, voted for Obama. People who said it wasn't important voted for Obama. He won more white votes than John Kerry.
Somewhere some couldn't bring themselves to vote for Obama because he's black, but they are a minority in this country now.
Avoiding the Personal
As a loner, Obama didn't run a predictable campaign, mouth the standard lines, get personal. In September, he passed up an easy three-pointer as the momentum was shifting to McCain, and Governor Sarah Palin was a fresh shooting star. When asked about the newly revealed pregnancy of Palin's 17-year-old unwed daughter, he didn't sniff ``no comment'' as if a pile of manure beyond acknowledgement had been set before him. He said it had no relevance.
``My mother had me when she was 18,'' he said. ``How family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics.'' It didn't matter that Republicans would have had a field day had positions been reversed. Whoever started the dirty fighting, someone had to stop it.
He had help in toppling the barrier as old as America itself: from McCain who lost his way with a running mate 60 percent of the country didn't trust to be president; from two wars; and from a crumbling economy. A friend said that if the cost of electing Obama was losing 80 percent of her 401(k), it was worth it.
All for One
On the eve of the election in Manassas, Virginia, where battles once were fought to keep blacks as slaves, almost 100,000 people came to an open field to hear Obama. The remarkable part of the evening wasn't Obama's speech but that a fully integrated crowd in the Confederate home state of Robert E. Lee heard it.
Unlike a high-school cafeteria, a church, or many neighborhoods, blacks and Latinos were sprinkled throughout, elbow to elbow, mingling happily. It was a county fair without the prize bull and cotton candy, a wedding without the bride, the Fourth of July and the World Series rolled into one.
And so it was Tuesday night in Grant Park in Chicago, as the outsider became the ultimate insider and begins the humbling task of repairing the country. We are not ``red states and blue states,'' Obama said. ``We are and always will be the United States of America.''
Margaret Carlson, author of ``Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House'' and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Prachanda’s secret life unraveled
Prachanda’s secret life unraveled
ekantipur, 18-Oct-08
In 2006, Anirban Roy was on assignment to report on the April Movement targeting the autocratic regime of King Gyanendra. While in Kathmandu, Roy heard a lot about Maoist chief Prachanda who had stolen the national and international limelight through his avant-garde ideologies.
“Everywhere you went, people talked about the radical communist leader,” he recounts in the preface to the book. “Prachanda was the new epicentre of Nepal's political dynamics.”
The 38-year-old journalist is today the Kathmandu-based correspondent of The Hindustan Times. Though he visited Nepal five times between 2001 and 2006 as a tourist, it was during his sixth visit that he became inquisitive about the persona of the Maoist top brass. He was truly enamoured of the aura of the Maoist chief and his disputable ideology that “gave a voice to the millions of poor and oppressed people” and at the same time “led a bloody civil war killing 13,000 people”.
“The Maoist chief led an underground life for more than 25 years, and piecing together the stories about him and authenticating them were the most difficult part,” he writes. The result, Prachanda: The Unknown Revolutionary, is a work of investigation. The writer has interviewed almost all of Prachanda's close associates and relatives.
The book gives the reader a glimpse into Prachanda's hidden life with rare anecdotes and photographs. A photo of a young Pushpa Kamal Dahal shows him staring coyly and tightly clutching his fists. It goes without saying that he was a determined young man. He was obsessed with books on revolutionary icons such as Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong and Naxalite leader Kanu Sanyal, of whom he considers himself a “self-proclaimed” disciple. In school, he often sneaked into the library or bookstores that imported books on communist ideology from India. In college, he would borrow profusely from teachers, his compatriots and libraries run by socialist states.
His infatuation with communism began from the time he was a school-goer, and he would often bunk classes to participate in communist programmes. Then two things happened that would shape his communist beliefs—the Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China initiated by Mao Zedong and the Naxalbari uprising in India headed by Kanu Sanyal. While the Naxalbari movement next door provided Prachanda moral support to envisage a similar kind of revolution in Nepal, Mao Zedong's strategy of a prolonged People's War taught him the benefits of setting up bases in the countryside and surrounding the cities.
At 19, Prachanda was already giving lectures to locals on the new theories of communism. Upon his graduation from the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS) at Rampur, he was already a pukka communist. Life took a U-turn when his family became unable to pay for his university education. He could not even secure a government job, and had to be satisfied with being a teacher. He was never fond of teaching, however, and he kept hopping from one teaching job to another. Teaching allowed him much free time which he could devote to the burgeoning communist movement. The radical communist leader even took a job in a U.S. sponsored development project for three months owing to acute poverty.
After he was appointed general secretary of the All Nepal Youth Organization headed by Matrika Yadav, Pushpa Kamal Dahal for the first time campaigned openly in support of the communist movement and against the draconian panchayat regime. The police soon raided his house on the charge of inciting youths against the panchayat regime, and he was forced to go underground. He was 27. After that, he constantly shifted from one hideout to another with his wife and four young children.
The first thing Prachanda did after becoming general secretary was convince his father to sell their house and land at Bhimsen Nagar to raise money for the party. He was lucky to have a wife who did not mind surviving on rice and green vegetable soup and cooking on a single kerosene stove. Despite the difficulties and hardships, his children also have fond memories of him. His youngest child Prakash recalls how his father was different from other fathers. “He never had to hurry in the morning to go to the office. Instead, he stayed home reading books or discussing something with friends.”
Prachanda's disillusionment with the Nepali political system was incited by ceaseless political squabbling for power and negligence of the plight of the rural poor. He dreamt of destroying government institutions and replacing them with a revolutionary peasant regime. He wholeheartedly followed the methods laid down by Peru's Shining Path rebels. Prachanda dealt with dissent ruthlessly, hence there was a tremendous rise in extrajudicial killings, kangaroo courts and cases of torture.
Unfortunately, Roy makes no mention of the wrong ways that Prachanda allowed his cadres to pursue to get their way. From the start of the civil war, Maoist cadres have indiscriminately indulged in threats, extortion and intimidation. They have tortured, maimed and killed hundreds of people who refused to do as they said. Prachanda has described the People's War as the means to end feudal structures. Ironically, the city-centred elite whom the Maoist view as feudal have remained untouched by the civil war.
Despite the flaws in his strategies, Prachanda received immense support from people at the periphery -- Dalits, the socially marginalized and minorities—who have been historically oppressed by the establishment. There are still a substantial number of Nepalis who see the Maoists as their messiah—the only alternative to the old, repressive social order.
The unexpected performance of the CPN-Maoist in the Constituent Assembly election has brought Prachanda to the forefront of politics. He has made it to the prime minister's chair and accepted that there is no alternative to multiparty democracy in the country. However, there are challenges ahead. Now he has to deliver peace, stability and economic prosperity to a nation reeling under acute poverty. The people have willingly given him the mandate to draft a new constitution and initiate new economic development. If he fails to deliver, the euphoria will die down.
The best thing I like about the book is the conciseness with which it has approached the life of the rebel leader. Descriptions of the battles between Maoists and security forces given from a Maoist perspective also make captivating reading. The best account is that of the attack on Beni Bazaar in which the Maoists destroyed the Kali Prasad barracks, the district police office and the district administration office. They also took 33 persons captive besides seizing a huge quantity of arms and ammunition.
There are two things that I cannot fail to mention. First, Roy has concentrated on only one side of the coin: Prahanda's charming personality. The writer has showered him with praise and justified the bloody civil war as the best way to establish a new Nepal. What he needs to do is also dig up Prachanda's ruthless side, the factors that prompted him to choose armed struggle and if a bloodbath is indeed a prerequisite for revolution. Second, as Roy has admitted in an interview to The Hindustan Times, the book that he has written is merely a skeleton. There are many autobiographical elements that are missing, and Roy needs to do more research to give the skeleton flesh and blood in the subsequent editions.
Reviewed by Monica Regmi
ekantipur, 18-Oct-08
In 2006, Anirban Roy was on assignment to report on the April Movement targeting the autocratic regime of King Gyanendra. While in Kathmandu, Roy heard a lot about Maoist chief Prachanda who had stolen the national and international limelight through his avant-garde ideologies.
“Everywhere you went, people talked about the radical communist leader,” he recounts in the preface to the book. “Prachanda was the new epicentre of Nepal's political dynamics.”
The 38-year-old journalist is today the Kathmandu-based correspondent of The Hindustan Times. Though he visited Nepal five times between 2001 and 2006 as a tourist, it was during his sixth visit that he became inquisitive about the persona of the Maoist top brass. He was truly enamoured of the aura of the Maoist chief and his disputable ideology that “gave a voice to the millions of poor and oppressed people” and at the same time “led a bloody civil war killing 13,000 people”.
“The Maoist chief led an underground life for more than 25 years, and piecing together the stories about him and authenticating them were the most difficult part,” he writes. The result, Prachanda: The Unknown Revolutionary, is a work of investigation. The writer has interviewed almost all of Prachanda's close associates and relatives.
The book gives the reader a glimpse into Prachanda's hidden life with rare anecdotes and photographs. A photo of a young Pushpa Kamal Dahal shows him staring coyly and tightly clutching his fists. It goes without saying that he was a determined young man. He was obsessed with books on revolutionary icons such as Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong and Naxalite leader Kanu Sanyal, of whom he considers himself a “self-proclaimed” disciple. In school, he often sneaked into the library or bookstores that imported books on communist ideology from India. In college, he would borrow profusely from teachers, his compatriots and libraries run by socialist states.
His infatuation with communism began from the time he was a school-goer, and he would often bunk classes to participate in communist programmes. Then two things happened that would shape his communist beliefs—the Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China initiated by Mao Zedong and the Naxalbari uprising in India headed by Kanu Sanyal. While the Naxalbari movement next door provided Prachanda moral support to envisage a similar kind of revolution in Nepal, Mao Zedong's strategy of a prolonged People's War taught him the benefits of setting up bases in the countryside and surrounding the cities.
At 19, Prachanda was already giving lectures to locals on the new theories of communism. Upon his graduation from the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS) at Rampur, he was already a pukka communist. Life took a U-turn when his family became unable to pay for his university education. He could not even secure a government job, and had to be satisfied with being a teacher. He was never fond of teaching, however, and he kept hopping from one teaching job to another. Teaching allowed him much free time which he could devote to the burgeoning communist movement. The radical communist leader even took a job in a U.S. sponsored development project for three months owing to acute poverty.
After he was appointed general secretary of the All Nepal Youth Organization headed by Matrika Yadav, Pushpa Kamal Dahal for the first time campaigned openly in support of the communist movement and against the draconian panchayat regime. The police soon raided his house on the charge of inciting youths against the panchayat regime, and he was forced to go underground. He was 27. After that, he constantly shifted from one hideout to another with his wife and four young children.
The first thing Prachanda did after becoming general secretary was convince his father to sell their house and land at Bhimsen Nagar to raise money for the party. He was lucky to have a wife who did not mind surviving on rice and green vegetable soup and cooking on a single kerosene stove. Despite the difficulties and hardships, his children also have fond memories of him. His youngest child Prakash recalls how his father was different from other fathers. “He never had to hurry in the morning to go to the office. Instead, he stayed home reading books or discussing something with friends.”
Prachanda's disillusionment with the Nepali political system was incited by ceaseless political squabbling for power and negligence of the plight of the rural poor. He dreamt of destroying government institutions and replacing them with a revolutionary peasant regime. He wholeheartedly followed the methods laid down by Peru's Shining Path rebels. Prachanda dealt with dissent ruthlessly, hence there was a tremendous rise in extrajudicial killings, kangaroo courts and cases of torture.
Unfortunately, Roy makes no mention of the wrong ways that Prachanda allowed his cadres to pursue to get their way. From the start of the civil war, Maoist cadres have indiscriminately indulged in threats, extortion and intimidation. They have tortured, maimed and killed hundreds of people who refused to do as they said. Prachanda has described the People's War as the means to end feudal structures. Ironically, the city-centred elite whom the Maoist view as feudal have remained untouched by the civil war.
Despite the flaws in his strategies, Prachanda received immense support from people at the periphery -- Dalits, the socially marginalized and minorities—who have been historically oppressed by the establishment. There are still a substantial number of Nepalis who see the Maoists as their messiah—the only alternative to the old, repressive social order.
The unexpected performance of the CPN-Maoist in the Constituent Assembly election has brought Prachanda to the forefront of politics. He has made it to the prime minister's chair and accepted that there is no alternative to multiparty democracy in the country. However, there are challenges ahead. Now he has to deliver peace, stability and economic prosperity to a nation reeling under acute poverty. The people have willingly given him the mandate to draft a new constitution and initiate new economic development. If he fails to deliver, the euphoria will die down.
The best thing I like about the book is the conciseness with which it has approached the life of the rebel leader. Descriptions of the battles between Maoists and security forces given from a Maoist perspective also make captivating reading. The best account is that of the attack on Beni Bazaar in which the Maoists destroyed the Kali Prasad barracks, the district police office and the district administration office. They also took 33 persons captive besides seizing a huge quantity of arms and ammunition.
There are two things that I cannot fail to mention. First, Roy has concentrated on only one side of the coin: Prahanda's charming personality. The writer has showered him with praise and justified the bloody civil war as the best way to establish a new Nepal. What he needs to do is also dig up Prachanda's ruthless side, the factors that prompted him to choose armed struggle and if a bloodbath is indeed a prerequisite for revolution. Second, as Roy has admitted in an interview to The Hindustan Times, the book that he has written is merely a skeleton. There are many autobiographical elements that are missing, and Roy needs to do more research to give the skeleton flesh and blood in the subsequent editions.
Reviewed by Monica Regmi
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Nick Simons Institute
Nick Simons InstituteThe white guy shaking hands of PM Dahal on August 17, 2008 looked eerily familiar to me. Then I searched and there he was, James Simons (aka Jim Simons) of Renaissance Technologies, the biggest earner in the hedge fund industry in 2006. According to the Alpha Magazine, the chronicler of the industry, his take-home pay in 2006 was a staggering $1.7 billion - more than the size of Nepal's budget. In 2007, he earned only $2.8 billion, a lot in an absolute sense but less than John Paulson & George Soros.
Looks like he is supporting health care in Nepal through Nick Simons Institute founded in memory of his son Nick. The Board of the Institute is composed of who's who of Nepal - Dr. Bhekh B. Thapa, Chitra Lekha Yadav, Kunda Dixit and Pravakhar Rana amongst others.
Jim Simons' efforts to help Nepal appear strikingly similar to efforts by another uber Yankee capitalist, Richard Blum of Blum Capital who does his "good work" through an outfit called American Himalayan Foundation.
Hedge Fund Managers Make A Bundle in 2007
Hedge Fund Managers Make A Bundle in 2007
How The 10 Richest Hedge Fund Managers Got That Way
Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2008,
By Heidi N. Moore
Hedge funds are so plentiful that people sometimes sniff that anyone can start one. Not everyone, however, can be the Roger Federer or Tiger Woods of investing.
And just as Roger and Tiger have their techniques, so do hedge-fund managers, who used widely divergent strategies to capitalize on the market turmoil of last year. So says Alpha Magazine, which today released its annual listing of the 50 richest hedge-fund managers in the world, ranked by their compensation. Prepare yourself: it is so obscenely high in some cases that it will look almost lurid. (As Alpha cheekily explains, five of the hedge-fund managers on the list earned more than $1.2 billion each last year, or more than J.P. Morgan Chase is paying for all of beleaguered Bear Stearns.) The top 50 did so well that Alpha raised the bar for yearly compensation to $210 million from $200 million, locking out two perennial favorites.
Those who know the hedge-fund business won’t be particularly surprised that there were so many outsize successes. Hedge funds are most profitable when market volatility is high, and 2007’s roller coaster credit crunch certainly provided that. The glaring caveat is that hedge funds can reap profits in those roiling markets only as long as they can stay in business. The markets are fickle, and the threat is that today’s successful strategy can be tomorrow’s liquidation, as the collapse of Peloton Advisors proved. As they say in those fund documents: Past results are no guarantee of future returns.
Deal Journal took a look at Alpha’s list and how the 10 highest-paid managers made their money. We ranked them below by name, firm and the amount of their yearly compensation in 2007. All the returns and compensation numbers below come from Alpha, and you can view the full list on their Web site. As you will see, no single strategy dominated.
SUBPRIME MORTGAGES
John Paulson, Paulson & Co., $3.7 billion. Paulson made $3.7 billion last year, mostly by shorting, or betting against, subprime mortgage securities and collateralized debt obligations. One of Paulson’s credit funds earned a 590% return last year, according to Alpha; another racked up a 353% return.
Philip Falcone, Harbinger Capital Parters, $1.7 billion. There is no word yet on how much money Falcone has made from challenging the New York Times board, but shorting subprime mortgages clearly was a profitable decision.
ACTIVISM
Timothy Barakett, Atticus Capital, $750 million. Barakett made his money, and reputation, on derailing the Deutsche Borse from buying the London Stock Exchange. Atticus also pushed Barclays to drop its bid for the Dutch bank ABN Amro.
LONG-SHORT
Stephen Mandel Jr., Lone Pine Capital, $710 million. Mandel’s firm scored a 57% return through the tried-and-true strategy that hedge-fund managers call “long-short,” or buying some stocks while shorting others. Mandel shorted retail and consumer finance stocks last year.
John Griffin, Blue Ridge Capital Management, $625 million. As hedge funds have become larger and fancier, long-short almost seems a quaint relic, but Griffin scored a 65% net return in 2007 by just doing that.
Andreas Halvorsen, Viking Global Investors, $520 million. Halverson manages $9 billion and scored a 41% return. Last year, he expanded his focus on financial stocks such as Invesco, according to Alpha.
DIVERSIFICATION
Ken Griffin, Citadel Investment Group, $1.5 billion. In the past year, Citadel has increased its assets to $20 billion from a little more than $13 billion and has been active in buying businesses in widely divergent areas. Citadel snapped up part of the credit portfolio of troubled (and now defunct) Sowood Capital Management and bought bankrupt mortgage lender ResMAE. It also moved into providing administration services for hedge funds and split off a market maker in derivatives from its main business.
Steven Cohen, SAC Capital, $900 million. Cohen takes a 43% performance fee and had returns of only 13% in 2007. Still, his annualized returns are around 40%, according to Alpha, and his firm pursues everything from vanilla equity investments to credit markets, convertible bonds and emerging markets.
KEEPING THEIR SECRETS
George Soros, Soros Fund Management $2.9 billion. Soros’s $17 billion flagship fund scored a 31.7% return last year. How is anyone’s guess, but the fund did reduce its holdings in equities.
James Simons, Renaissance Technologies Corp., $2.8 billion: Renaissance’s flagship Medallion fund was up 73% in 2007.
How The 10 Richest Hedge Fund Managers Got That Way
Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2008,
By Heidi N. Moore
Hedge funds are so plentiful that people sometimes sniff that anyone can start one. Not everyone, however, can be the Roger Federer or Tiger Woods of investing.
And just as Roger and Tiger have their techniques, so do hedge-fund managers, who used widely divergent strategies to capitalize on the market turmoil of last year. So says Alpha Magazine, which today released its annual listing of the 50 richest hedge-fund managers in the world, ranked by their compensation. Prepare yourself: it is so obscenely high in some cases that it will look almost lurid. (As Alpha cheekily explains, five of the hedge-fund managers on the list earned more than $1.2 billion each last year, or more than J.P. Morgan Chase is paying for all of beleaguered Bear Stearns.) The top 50 did so well that Alpha raised the bar for yearly compensation to $210 million from $200 million, locking out two perennial favorites.
Those who know the hedge-fund business won’t be particularly surprised that there were so many outsize successes. Hedge funds are most profitable when market volatility is high, and 2007’s roller coaster credit crunch certainly provided that. The glaring caveat is that hedge funds can reap profits in those roiling markets only as long as they can stay in business. The markets are fickle, and the threat is that today’s successful strategy can be tomorrow’s liquidation, as the collapse of Peloton Advisors proved. As they say in those fund documents: Past results are no guarantee of future returns.
Deal Journal took a look at Alpha’s list and how the 10 highest-paid managers made their money. We ranked them below by name, firm and the amount of their yearly compensation in 2007. All the returns and compensation numbers below come from Alpha, and you can view the full list on their Web site. As you will see, no single strategy dominated.
SUBPRIME MORTGAGESJohn Paulson, Paulson & Co., $3.7 billion. Paulson made $3.7 billion last year, mostly by shorting, or betting against, subprime mortgage securities and collateralized debt obligations. One of Paulson’s credit funds earned a 590% return last year, according to Alpha; another racked up a 353% return.
Philip Falcone, Harbinger Capital Parters, $1.7 billion. There is no word yet on how much money Falcone has made from challenging the New York Times board, but shorting subprime mortgages clearly was a profitable decision.
ACTIVISM
Timothy Barakett, Atticus Capital, $750 million. Barakett made his money, and reputation, on derailing the Deutsche Borse from buying the London Stock Exchange. Atticus also pushed Barclays to drop its bid for the Dutch bank ABN Amro.
LONG-SHORT
Stephen Mandel Jr., Lone Pine Capital, $710 million. Mandel’s firm scored a 57% return through the tried-and-true strategy that hedge-fund managers call “long-short,” or buying some stocks while shorting others. Mandel shorted retail and consumer finance stocks last year.
John Griffin, Blue Ridge Capital Management, $625 million. As hedge funds have become larger and fancier, long-short almost seems a quaint relic, but Griffin scored a 65% net return in 2007 by just doing that.
Andreas Halvorsen, Viking Global Investors, $520 million. Halverson manages $9 billion and scored a 41% return. Last year, he expanded his focus on financial stocks such as Invesco, according to Alpha.
DIVERSIFICATION
Ken Griffin, Citadel Investment Group, $1.5 billion. In the past year, Citadel has increased its assets to $20 billion from a little more than $13 billion and has been active in buying businesses in widely divergent areas. Citadel snapped up part of the credit portfolio of troubled (and now defunct) Sowood Capital Management and bought bankrupt mortgage lender ResMAE. It also moved into providing administration services for hedge funds and split off a market maker in derivatives from its main business.
Steven Cohen, SAC Capital, $900 million. Cohen takes a 43% performance fee and had returns of only 13% in 2007. Still, his annualized returns are around 40%, according to Alpha, and his firm pursues everything from vanilla equity investments to credit markets, convertible bonds and emerging markets.
KEEPING THEIR SECRETS
George Soros, Soros Fund Management $2.9 billion. Soros’s $17 billion flagship fund scored a 31.7% return last year. How is anyone’s guess, but the fund did reduce its holdings in equities.
James Simons, Renaissance Technologies Corp., $2.8 billion: Renaissance’s flagship Medallion fund was up 73% in 2007.
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